Please sign onto the attached letter to President Obama and FEMA regarding the Indian Point evacuation plans.
In summary, we are asking that FEMA does not certify the annual evacuation plan for Indian Point,
when the local emergency authorities and New York State have not certified the plan, and the Witt Report found the evacuation plans unworkable and unfixable.
We need to get this letter out right away because the process has already started for this year's certification, so please
email back your permission to add your name or organization to the letter.
Thank you.
Susan Shapiro
(845) 596-5403 cell
(845) 371-2100 work
DRAFT LETTER:
11/11/09
President Barak Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500-0004
Director Craig Fugate
Federal Emergency Management Agency
500 C Street
SW Washington, DC 20472
RE: FEMA certification of annual emergency
evacuation plans for Indian Point and Reagan Executive Order #12658
Dear President Obama and Director Fugate:
Consistent with your desire to
observe and adhere to regulatory standards and as a matter of national security
we the undersigned, residents and organizations in the Hudson Valley and the
New York City Metropolitan area of the Tri-State Region, respectively implore
you not to permit FEMA and FEMA director Craig Fugate to automatically and
arbitrarily certify the annual Indian Point Nuclear Radiological Emergency
Evacuation Plan in disregard of the local and state authorities.
The radiological emergency
evacuation plans for Indian Point are uniquely inadequate and in violation of
the requirements set forth in the Atomic Energy Act for the following reasons:
1) An extensive evaluation
commissioned by New York State and conducted by former FEMA Director James Lee
Witt determined that the evacuation plans for Indian Point have major and
unfixable flaws that render the evacuation plans for this region unworkable.
2) As a result of
those findings, the local county and state authorities have not certified that
the evacuation plans are workable since 2003 Governor Pataki who commissioned
the study, publicly stated his belief that the conclusions were valid.
3) Indian Point is located in the
most densely populated area of the country with 21 million people, about 8% of
the US population living within 50 miles of Indian Point. Fifty miles was defined by the CRAC2 Study
conducted by Sandia Laboratories for the US House of Representatives as the
Peak Injury Zone around the nuclear plant.
4) The population surrounding
Indian Point has increased 10 fold since it
received site approval in the 60’s.
In 1979 Robert Ryan, then the Director of the NRC’s Office of State
Programs, testified publicly that he thought that having a three unit nuclear
plant on the banks of the Hudson, 25 miles north of New York City, was insane
from an emergency planning perspective.
Public health and safety cannot be grandfathered in.
5) Numerous institutions and
segments of the population, such as early childcare facilities, senior centers
and prisons, as well as latchkey kids who would be home without parental
supervision, are not adequately
addressed in the evacuation plan.
6) The geographic and geological
topography of the region coupled with the limited road and bridge
infrastructure make timely evacuation of the area impossible. Entergy’s own traffic studies estimate that
it would take 100% longer to evacuate the area than had been previously
estimated.
7) Because of the obvious flaws that would render
this plan unworkable the NRC is now recommending that residents shelter in
place rather than evacuating the area.
Sheltering in place cannot be considered a reasonable option, as both
FEMA and the NRC recognize that sheltering in place is not as effective in
reducing the risk to the public as evacuation.
This is clearly stated in the February 21, 2003 report on emergency
preparedness, footnoted below.
8)
The annual table top drills conducted by the plant operator under the
observation of the NRC have been grossly inadequate to evaluate the
capabilities of an evacuation plan.
These drills only consider a slow- breaking release, and have never
pre-supposed an extensive radiological release, nor have they factored in the
likely traffic congestion that would result from spreading awareness of a
radiologic release
In fact, in July 2003, on the day
that FEMA certified the evacuation plan as providing “reasonable assurance”
that it would be effective despite the Witt reports findings and the
withholding of State and County certification, a single car accident on the
George Washington Bridge created a day long traffic jam on virtually all the
roads that are to be used for evacuation in case of emergency. Since then the traffic congestion has not
improved, but has significantly worsened.
In the post
Katrina and 9/11 world FEMA’s automatic and arbitrary certification of the
emergency evacuation plans for Indian Point in contradiction to local county
and state emergency authorities cannot be justified.
Therefore we are respectfully
requesting that your administration, unlike the previous administration, respect and honor the knowledge and hard work
of local county and state emergency
planning authorities by not allowing FEMA to abdicate its responsibility to
protect public health and safety by
signing off on an unworkable and unfixable evacuation plan
Additionally we respectfully
request that you direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withhold any
acceptance or certification of an evacuation plan that FEMA does not certify.
Sincerely,
Indian Point Safe
Energy Coalition,
Susan Zimet,
Ulster County Legislator,
Connie Coker,
Rockland County Legislator,
Westchester
Citizens Awareness Network,,
Michael
Mariotte, Executive Director, NIRS
PHASE
(Public Health and Sustainable Energy) Council
on Intelligent Energy & Conservation
Sarah
Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion
Cc: Senator Charles Schumer
Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator
Harry Reid
Congressman John Hall
Congresswoman Nita Lowey
Congressman Eliot Engel
Congressman Maurice Hinchey
Congressman Edward Markey
Governor David Paterson
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
NYS SEMO Director John R. Gibb
Westchester County Executive Andrew
Spano
Rockland County Executive Scott
Vanderhoef
Orange County Executive Edward
Diana
Putnam County Executive Robert
Bondi
On page 6 of Attachment B of
the report, the report states: NUREG
-0654, Appendix 1 issued in 1983 and enhanced in 1996, in the NRC Supplement 3
to NUREG-0654.FEMA-REP1 "Criteria for Protective Action Recommendations
for Severe Accidents. States that “Since the publication of the original
guidance extensive studies of severe reactor accidents have been performed. These studies clearly indicate that for all
but a very limited set of conditions, prompt evacuation of the area near the
plant is much more effective in reducing the risk of early health effects than
sheltering the population in the event of severe accidents. In addition, studies have shown that except
for very limited conditions. Evacuation in a plume is still more effective in
reducing health risks that prolonged sheltering near the plant. The NRC and FEMA recommend that the
population near the plant should be evacuated.”
The NEI on the eve of Katrina presented a white paper whereby sheltering
in place would replace required evacuation for the 10 miles radius due to the
costs to the operators and the inability of adequate evacuation being
accomplished. The NRC has since accepted
a 2 mile wedge evacuation as an adequate standard, and sheltering in place for the other residents of the
emergency evacuation zone.