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Dear (recipient will be dropped in automatically),
I am writing to ask you to support the Nuclear Security Act of 2001 (HR 3382)(S.1746), a bill which will increase security against terrorist threats, expand emergency planning to a 50 mile zone, and provide greater protection of the public at commercial nuclear power plants. The urgency of taking action to protect public safety is underscored by news reports on January 31st that U.S. intelligence agencies have issued an internal alert that Islamic terrorists are planning another spectacular attack possibly against a U.S. nuclear power plant.
The Millstone Nuclear Power station is only 11 miles from the shores of Long Island. The events of September 11 coupled with President�s disclosure in his State-of-the-Union address about nuclear power plants being potential targets of terror make it imperative that Congress takes steps to protect the public.
The location of the Millstone reactors on the shores of Long Island Sound leave them wide open to air or water based attacks. "Soft" targets such as spent fuel buildings could be readily breached. There are several small rural airports in Millstone�s vicinity with minimal security forces and fly at your own risk disqualifiers. An aircraft attack on one of the spent fuel buildings could result in a zirconium fire and the release of a large amount of radioactivity�particularly cesium-137. This possibility is not in dispute.
The need for expanded federal level emergency planning is likewise indisputable, given the increased density of the populations surrounding reactors since these facilities were built. The chaos and pandemonium that would ensue as people try to flee a radioactive leak would require an evacuation zone greater than the current 10-mile radius. The NRC needs to make reactor operators take additional measures to protect vulnerable targets from land, air and water-based attacks, with a focus on spent fuel storage, control buildings and other soft targets.
The Nuclear Security Act will provide federal security forces to supplement on site security guards to protect nuclear power plants from acts of terrorism; it will require the NRC to modify the design basis threats to nuclear plants, including spent fuel pools, to protect against terrorist attacks; it provides for force-on-force training exercises to assure readiness; it increases the emergency planning zone around a nuclear power plant from 10 miles to 50 miles; provide a stockpile of potassium iodide for residents in a 50 mile radius of a nuclear power plant, and it provides funding for added security required in the case of an act of war. The cost of funding federal security forces will come from a surcharge not to exceed 1 mil per kilowatt-hour, eliminating taxpayer burden.
Voters overwhelmingly passed a public referendum in the Town of East Hampton calling for a 50-mile emergency-planning zone for Millstone sending a powerful message to the NRC and the Federal government.
There is a loss of confidence because the NRC and the nuclear utilities industry have persistently ignored the vulnerabilities of our nation's nuclear facilities to a terrorist attack. They have assumed that a terrorist attack simply can't happen here. The events of September 11th force us to change that mentality. The Administration's recent warnings that power plants and other infrastructure are potential targets, and stationing the National Guard at several reactors sites further underscore this concern. The consequences of a successful attack against a nuclear power plant are too severe to accept the flawed assurances from the NRC and the industry. The measures outlined in the Nuclear Security Act of 2001 will compel the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to take obvious steps to increase security at these facilities and reduce consequences if radioactivity is released.
I strongly urge you to sign on to this legislation and to work to assure its passage in the near future.
Sincerely,
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