SAN LUIS OBISPO MOTHERS FOR PEACE CHALLENGES NRC’S IRRATIONAL CONCLUSION THAT THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF A TERRORIST ATTACK WOULD BE OF NO SIGNIFICANCE.

On April 14, 2008 attorney Diane Curran, representing San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (MFP) filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) detailed reasons why the NRC Staff needs to completely re-do its evaluation of the environmental impacts of an attack on the proposed dry cask storage facility at Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Pacific Gas and Electric Company plans to store highly radioactive wastes in the casks, beginning in the summer of 2008, since the spent fuel pools are packed to their maximum capacity.

The NRC refuses MFP’s attorney and expert witness, both with the proper security clearances, access to information about how the NRC Staff supports its irrational conclusion that a successful terrorist attack on the dry casks will have “no significant impact” on the environment. However, members of the nuclear industry are regularly consulted on these issues. MFP is thus denied a fair hearing, to which it is entitled under federal law.

MFP also asserts that the NRC continues to rely on hidden and unjustified assumptions. One example is that in considering the effects of releases of radioactive material, the NRC considers only the potential for early fatalities, ignoring such consequences as increased cancers and illnesses, land contamination, and associated effects on the economy.

MFP’s case is supported by a detailed report by Dr. Gordon Thompson, a highly qualified expert on the technical issues of nuclear facility vulnerability. According to Dr. Thompson, “The NRC Staff has not provided a comprehensive assessment to support its position. A comprehensive assessment would consider a range of attack scenarios, release type, and weather conditions. It would also address site-specific issues, and it would disclose all of the assumptions that underlie its position.”

Dr. Thompson cites studies ignored by the NRC that spell out the potential impacts of such an attack. These studies have been conducted by national laboratories employed by the federal government, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security and Sandia National Laboratory. The NRC’s response to these studies has been to declare them secret, rather than to take their findings into account.

MFP spokesperson Jane Swanson observes, “The NRC is clearly more interested in promoting than in regulating the nuclear industry when it pronounces the consequences of a successful attack to be of no significance, while keeping its reasoning secret from experts with security clearances. One suspects the emperor has no clothes!”

BACKGROUND

In 2002 MFP first challenged the NRC’s licensing of the dry cask storage facility at Diablo Canyon, on the grounds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had failed to comply with federal law, by not taking into account the environmental effects of a terrorist attack on the not-yet- built facility for storing additional radioactive wastes.

In June, 2006 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit supported the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (MFP) position. However, the NRC Staff’s response to the federal court ruling has been weak and incomplete. The NRC continues to declare that a successful attack on the dry cask storage facility would have “ no significant impact”. This conclusion relies on unsupported conclusions and secret documents.

VIEW THESE FILINGS

The MFP filing with the NRC, dated April 14, 2008

Declaration of Dr. Gordon Thompson:

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 3