Dukakis Attacks NRC Seabrook Ruling

BOSTON--Critics of the Seabrook nuclear power plant lashed out yesterday at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's preliminary decision to limit the role of governors in emergency planning for nuclear power plants.

The decision, if ratified after a 60 day period for public comment, would clear the way for licensing the Seabrook plant in New Hampshire, near the Massachusetts border, and the Shoreham plant on Long Island, 55 miles east of New York City.

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis described the vote as "ill-advised, wrong-headed and a total disregard for the responsibility governors and states have to protect the public health and safety of their citizens."

Dukakis, who testified at an NRC hearing Tuesday against the new rule, said he would ask fellow governors and members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to join in opposing the proposed change.

"There's been a meltdown in the NRC's star chamber," Dukakis is said. "The commission's action to strip governors of their power to protect the men, women and children of their states is as alarming as it is lacking in common sense."

Dukakis has blocked the awarding of an operating license for the New Hampshire plant by refusing to approve emergency evacuation plans for the six Massachusetts communities within the 10-mile emergency planning zone.

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a chief critic of Seabrook and the nuclear power industry, said the NRC "is sending a message to the American people that the economic wellbeing of the nuclear industry is more important than the health and safety of the public."

"The NRC obviously decided to turn a deaf ear to the unprecedented testimony of numerous governors and members of Congress who voiced their opposition to this proposal. In the 60 days the commission has allowed for public comment, I have no doubt that they will get an earful. I can only hope their hearing improves," added the Massachusetts Democrat.

Massachusetts Attorney General James Shannon promised to fight the NRC decision, which he said came as no surprise.

"They are more concerned with getting Seabrook licensed than they are with legitimate concerns raised by our state. It this rule is promulgated, we'll see them in court," Shannon said.

Dukakis said the Seabrook plant was "a white elephant" and that the NRC's action was the equivalent of removing lifeboats on the Titanic.

"After months and months of work, effort, and analysis, I came to one fundamental conclusion: the area around Seabrook could not be evacuated in the event of a serious nuclear accident," Dukakis said in his testimony Tuesday.

So far, Dukakis and New York Governor Mario Cuomo have managed to block the startup of Shoreham and Seabrook because NRC rules adopted in the wake of the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, Pa., virtually require state and local cooperation in planning for the evacuation of residents within 10 miles of a reactor in the event of a major accident.

The two governors have refused, saying there is no way to guarantee the safe exodus of residents in the cases of Shoreham and Seabrook.

The proposed rules change would entitle the NRC to go ahead and license a plant in the absence of state and local cooperation on emergency plant. In such cases, the utilities themselves would be required to develop evacuation plans on their own, ones which could be reasonably expected to work if local authorities did in fact respond to an emergency, regardless of their pre-license objections.

Cuomo told the NRC Tuesday that the notion of ignoring state objections "suggests a policy that would be unconstitutional, a blatant disregarding of the need for evacuation, a repudiation of the president, a contradiction of the history of this commission...and a further blow to your already diminished credibility."