2/25/2013 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes

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I, In the United States,emergency planning have access to potassium iodide, which to protect the public from direct exposure could be important to children more than While concerns about P to radioactive fallout during a severe nu- 100 miles downwind. The NRC should clear accident is limited to the area within conduct a science-based assessment of nuclear power safety are 10 miles of each reactor. People within every reactor site to determine the popu- often focused on the this zone could be evacuated and receive lations most at risk from a severe nuclear potassium iodide tablets to help prevent accident,then revise its emergency plan- fuel in the reactor, spent thyroid cancer (to which children are ning requirements accordingly. fuel stored in pools can especially vulnerable). Following the Also, emergency response plans as- j Japanese earthquake, however, the U.S. some that a reactor accident would not also be a major source II government advised Americans within a be accompanied by another disaster or 50-mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi emergency that would tax emergency re- Of radiation during reactors to evacuate—a decision later sponse resources, but the scale of the an accident. validated by the high contamination overlapping disasters in Japan over- levels found well beyond 10 miles from whelmed those resources.An interagency the plant. committee including the NRC and the If a severe accident occurred in which Department of Homeland Security should be a major source of radiation during an radiation was released from the contain- therefore revisit federal, state, and local accident. If the pool is drained for even ment structure, some people inside the emergency response plans to ensure they a few hours, or the cooling system is in- 10-mile zone could be exposed to imme- account for the possibility of overlapping terrupted for several days, the spent fuel diatelylife-threateninglevels of radiation, disasters. could overheat and its cladding could while people well outside the zone could break open, leading to the release of be exposed to levels high enough to cause Improving the Safety and Security radiation. a significant increase in cancer risk. This of Spent Fuel Moreover,spent fuel pools are located risk could be minimized by expanding While concerns about nuclear power outside the robust primary containment the emergency planning zone so that safety are often focused on the fuel in the structure that surrounds the reactor ves- more people could be evacuated and reactor,spent fuel stored in pools can also sel, so any radiation released from the ®NRC fff ~X are J i