(POSTED 6/11/07)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released for public comment a report that concludes there is little risk of a terrorist attack on the proposed Honolulu irradiator jeopardizing public health or the environment.
The document is an appendix to the environmental assessment for the facility that the NRC published last year. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ordered the appendix on terrorist attacks, agreeing with contentions by Concerned Citizens of Honolulu, which opposes the irradiator, that the EA did not sufficiently address the issue.
David Henkin, the attorney with Earthjustice who represents the group, criticized the appendix, saying it “doesn’t do what it says it does.”
“There’s supposed to be some meat on the bones – something that gives people confidence that the NRC actually analyzed the potential of various events… Conclusory statements don’t provide the disclosure of the process, the thinking process, the agency engaged in to satisfy NEPA requirements not only to educate the agency, but also public officials and the public.”
A copy of the document is available at http://www.nrc.gov/materials.html Follow the link to “Pa`ina irradiator” under Key Topics. Comments will be accepted through July 9.
Last month, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board again rebuked NRC staff, ordering it to explain to the board how it arrived at the conclusion that, in the case of the Pa`ina Hawai`i application, there were “no extraordinary and unique circumstances calling for additional analysis.”
“The Board is at a loss to understand how the Staff on the one hand … concedes the admissibility of intervenor [Concerned Citizens’] Safety Contention 13 and, on the other hand, in its May 21 response to our questions, insists that no safety review was performed regarding aircraft crash probabilities and consequences nor is any such review required.” The NRC staff was also instructed to explain how it can now claim “that the Commission’s safety regulations effectively bar consideration of aircraft crashes.” The NRC staff response was due on June 20.
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