Not on Our Fault Line calls upon NRC to distribute KI within 20 miles of North Anna

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)Not on Our Fault Line, a group of concerned citizens which formed in response to the 5.8 magnitude earthquake of August 23, 2011 epicentered just 11 miles from the North Anna nuclear power plant, is calling on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to enforce a 2002 law requiring the distribution of potassium iodide (KI) tablets within 20 miles of U.S. atomic reactors. KI saturates the human thyroid gland, blocking uptake of hazardous Iodine-131, a viciously radioactive substance that escaped during the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, causing an epidemic of thyroid disease downwind in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Large quantities of I-131 also escaped during the Fukushima triple reactor core meltdown and radioactive waste storage pool fire that began in March 2011, leading the Japanese federal government to warn parents not to use Tokyo's tap water for infants during the early days of the catastrophe due to I-131 contamination. I-131 has an 8 day half life; thus, its hazardous persistence lasts 80 to 160 days.

Section 127 of the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 was sponsored as a successful amendment by U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA, pictured at left), a long time watchdog on the nuclear power industry. In May, 2011, Markey led a bipartisan letter of House Members addressed to President Obama, calling for implementation of the law. 9 long years after its enactment, NRC still had not enforced the law. Markey issued a press release about the letter to Obama, signed by 30 Members of Congress.

NRDC questions adequacy of emergency preparedness surrounding Limerick

NRC does not indicate whether or not the flowers in its file photo of Limerick are spiderwort mutated by radioactivityNatural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has filed a petition, backed up by technical declarations, to intervene with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), challenging the 20 year license extension sought by Exelon, the largest U.S. nuclear utility, for its twin-reactor Limerick Nuclear Power Plant near Pottstown, PA. Limerick is just 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia, with 8 million people living within 50 miles. NRDC argues that after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Limerick's two decade old severe accident mitigation alternatives analysis is obsolete and far from sufficient. The Philadelphia Enquirer, Associated Press, WHYY (Philly NPR), and Pennsylvania NPR, among others, covered the story.  States News Service carried NRDC's media statement. NRC has rubberstamped 71 license extensions in the past dozen years. In 1982, an NRC sponsored study (which the agency unsuccessfully tried to cover up) reported that a major accident at Limerick could cause 74,000 "peak early fatalities" (second worst in the U.S. after Salem in New Jersey), 610,000 "peak early injuries" (by far the worst in the country), 34,000 "peak cancer deaths," and around $200 billion in property damage ($450 billion when adjusted for inflation). The population downwind of Limerick has grown by over a million since that study was produced. Both Limerick units are General Electric boiling water reactors with Mark 2 containment designs, similar in many ways to the catastrophically failed Fukushima Daiichi GE Mark 1s. Given the large population surrounding Limerick, and the old age of Exelon's emergency plans, NRDC questions the adequacy of preparedness for a serious accident at the twin-reactor complex.

Glitches abound in first ever test of national emergency alert system

As reported in the New York Times article "Had This Been an Actual Emergency...Oops!", problems plagued the first ever test of the national emergency alert system on Americans' radios and t.v. sets nationwide. This calls into question its reliability in a nuclear related crisis, of course.

Sen. Casey calls for GAO probe of nuclear emergency plans

As Jeff Donn at the Associated Press reports, U.S. Senator Robert Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania (pictured at left), has called upon the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm, to report back to him on the adequacy of NRC, FEMA, and nuclear industry emergency plans. His action comes in response to AP's report on the explosion of populations around nuclear power plants in the past 30 years (see that article in the posting below).

Residents nearby atomic reactors question adequacy of emergency evacuation plans

Jeff Donn at the Associated Press has published another follow up article to his four-part exposé "Aging Nukes." The current article is entitled "Some worry about nuclear plant evacuation plans." It follows a June 27th article entitled "Populations around U.S. nuke plants soar."