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Please select recipients for your letter: Congressman Grucci Select All Dear (recipient will be dropped in automatically), Congressman Felix Grucci 31 West Main Street, Suite 306 Patchogue, NY 11772 Re: Millstone Nuclear Power Station and radiological planning Dear Congressman Grucci: There is a significant issue on Eastern Long Island that needs your attention. In 1999 the Suffolk Legislature passed resolution no. 44-1999 which directed the County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services to prepare �an appropriate disaster preparedness plan� in the event of an accident at the Millstone Nuclear Power Station. Both the County Executive and the legislature agreed that there was �an absence of an emergency plan for those portions of Long Island that would fall within the potential zone of danger in the event that there is an incident at the Millstone nuclear power plant.� This absence of a plan is now more relevant that ever in the wake of the tragedies of September 11, 2001. Indeed, if there was a terrorist attack on Millstone, Long Island would be severely impacted. The issue is a no longer and abstraction, in fact, the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania was the target of a credible threat that resulted in the shutdown of nearby Harrisburg international airport for more than 4 hours. Furthermore, the Governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have called National Guard protection to their states nuclear reactors. Yet, this important issue for Long Island continues to be ignored. As you know, the Shoreham reactor was never allowed to operate due to widespread safety and evacuation concerns. A great deal of that concern rose from the congestion on the East End and the restricted access resulting from the unique topography. The Millstone power station in Waterford Connecticut is only 11 miles from the shores of Long Island and, is in fact, closer to the most of Eastern Long Island than Shoreham. A previous referendum on the ballot in the Towns of Southampton and East Hampton, asked whether residents advocated the closure of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station. This referendum requested the State of New York to establish a 50 mile plume exposure pathway emergency planning zone for Long Island. Unfortunately, the state never acted to alter its radiological planning for Long Islands unique concerns. The message from the voters was that they felt Millstone is a significant threat to their safety. Now, this threat has been significantly increased. LONG ISLAND EVACUATION PARTICULARS Radiological evacuation on Long Island is a sensitive issue with a long history. Long Island has unique topography and has limited access routes. During the debate over the ill-fated Shoreham Nuclear plant, a human response study was conducted on Long Island. �Evacuation behavior in response to nuclear power plant accidents,� that concludes that �knowledge of evacuation behavior, whether in response to natural or technological threats is crucial for the successful design and implementation of community emergency plans.� Furthermore, this Long Island evacuation behavior response study concluded that in the event of a radiological emergency the public, especially on Long Island, will overreact to a radiological threat, whether the threat is real or perceived. Indeed, based upon experience gleaned from the Three Mile Island accident �even though the Governor�s evacuation advisory was geographically limited and issued with a the proviso that an excess of caution is best, an extensive evacuation shadow was cast over a six-county area.� The study concluded that a �high degree of spontaneous evacuation is likely to occur on Long Island, just as it did around Three Mile Island, during a radiological emergency.� �Spontaneous evacuation and its geographic manifestation, the evacuation shadow phenomenon, seem to place nuclear power plant accidents in a class by themselves.� In fact, the study suggested several implications for evacuation planning on Long Island and determined that �the extent of the evacuation shadow suggests that limiting evacuation planning to the 10-mile plume exposure EPZ would be under-planning for a nuclear accident because so few of the evacuees would actually originate in that zone.� Therefore, given the sensitive history in the region coupled with the unique circumstances presented by conflicting county and state laws, the lack of emergency planning takes on added significance. I am writing to urge you to help: 1) Implement a county wide emergency notification siren that is coordinated and tested. It is our understanding from East Hampton emergency managers that a civil defense style three (3) minute siren warning system is being contemplated and we hope that this system will encompass as much of the County as possible. 2) Sufficiently fund a Disaster Preparedness Plan for a Millstone emergency. 3) Any radiological emergency planning should specifically incorporate the lessons learned from the accident at Three Mile Island (TMI) and fails to take into consideration factors related to demography, topography, land characteristics and access routes. The conclusions reached by independent analysis and the NRC was that �not only do people evacuate from an unprecedented large area when threatened by a radiological emergency, but also they flee longer distances than in other types of disasters.� Therefore, any revision of Resolution No. 44-1999 should keep the 1st resolved 1-8, while specifically also providing mention of the above. Furthermore, any such initiative should include the creation of a Community Advisory Board that would be charged with overseeing and providing comment on the creation of any plan. Thank you for your attention to these concerns. Sincerely, Sincerely, First Name Last Name       Your Email Address: Your Street Address: Your City: Your State/Province: Your Zip/Postal Code: Your Country: Your Phone Number: Your Fax Number: Add my name to the STAR Mailing List