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Agenda - 04-07-1999
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Agenda - 04-07-1999
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BOCC
Date
4/7/1999
Meeting Type
Special Meeting
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Agenda
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Minutes - 19990407
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Health and Economic Consequences of Accidents <br />from High-Level Nuclear 1R/aste Storage <br />The following is a summary of key points from a 1997 study performed for the U. S. Nuclear <br />Regulatory Commission by the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The study describes <br />various types of serious accidents that can occur in High-Level nuclear waste storage pools. <br />- The largest accidents considered in the BNL study could kill approximately 100 people <br />immediately, cause 140,000 cancer deaths, contaminate over 1.5 million acres of farmland <br />so badly that it could never be decontaminated, and cause over 500 billion in property <br />damage not including costs of health damage. <br />- Even a much smaller accident involving leaks from only 700 to 1,700 fuel assemblies could <br />cause nearly 20,000 cancer deaths, cause $25 billion in property damage off-site from the <br />plant while permanently contaminating up to 16,000 acres of farmland. CP&L proposes a <br />total of over 8,000 fuel assemblies at Shearon Harris. <br />- Of the 8 most. severe accidents studied by BNL, 4 would exceed $50 billion in off-site <br />property damage, 3 would exceed $100 billion, and 2 would exceed $200 billion with a <br />maximum of $566 billion of off-site property damages. <br />- Four of these accidents could force the abandonment of 100,000 acres of farmland or <br />more, with a maximum of 1.7 million acres that would be too radioactive to ever clean up; <br />4 accidents would also exceed 25,000 cancer deaths, 3 of which could exceed 50,000 <br />deaths. <br />- By comparison, a severe meltdown of a nuclear unit considerably larger than Shearon <br />Harris would be expected to cause 88 to 160 quick deaths, 35,000 to 110,000 cancer- <br />deaths and the loss of 1.3 million acres of farmland, according to a 1995 study also <br />conducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory. While that study did not estimate economic <br />damages from a meltdown, the largest numbers we know of range from $200 billion to <br />over $300 billion - or about half as much as the most serious spent fuel accident that BNL <br />reported in the 1997 study. <br />- Over the 27 years CP&L proposes to operate the expanded waste pools, the probability of <br />the most severe accident according to BNL would be about 1 in 18,000, which is 12 times <br />higher than previous NRC estimates for a severe spent fuel accident. Chernobyl had an <br />estimated i in 10,000 chance of an accident by comparison. <br />- BNL estimates the probability of an accident causing nearly 20,000 cancer deaths and $25 <br />billion in property damage has a cumulative probability of about i in 125. <br />- The BNL study did not consider worst case accidents. CP&L's plans would have more than <br />3 times as much waste fuel in storage as considered by BNL. <br />'°The industry does not have sufficient dafa to support the c/aim that a spent fuel <br />accident is unlike/y to occur. They try to dismiss these very severe consequences <br />with the unsubstantiated claim that the event is not like/y to occur," <br />--David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC <br />Author of Nuclear Waste Disposal Crisis <br />WasteAwarenessandReductlanNeiwork PO Box 61051, Durham, NC 27715-1051 <br />Jan 1999 ~ ,~ 919-490-0747, Fax: 493-6614 NC-WARN@POBOX.COM <br />
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