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Health and Economic Consequences of Accidents
 from High-Level Nuclear Waste Storage
 
The following is a summary of key points from a 1997 study performed for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL).  The study describes various types of serious accidents that can occur in Hich-Level nuclear waste storage pools, and the consequences to a highly populated area. 
 

Ø       The largest accidents considered in the BNL study could kill approximately 100 people immediately, cause 140,000 cancer deaths, contaminate over 1.5 million acres of farmland so badly that it could never be decontaminated, and cause over 500 billion in property damage not including costs of health damage.

 

Ø       Even a much smaller accident involving leaks from only 700 to 1,700 fuel assemblies could cause nearly 20,000 cancer deaths, cause $25 billion in property damage off-site from the plant while permanently contaminating up to 16,000 acres of farmland. CP&L proposes a total of over 8,000 fuel assemblies at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant.

 

Ø       Of the 8 most severe accidents studied by BNL, 4 would exceed $50 billion in off-site property damage, 3 would exceed $100 billion, and 2 would exceed $200 billion with a maximum of $566 billion of off-site property damages.

 

Ø       Four of these accidents could force the abandonment of 100,000 acres of farmland or more, with a maximum of 1.7 million acres that would be too radioactive to ever clean up; 4 accidents would also exceed 25,000 cancer deaths, 3 of which could exceed 50,000 deaths.

 

Ø       By comparison, a severe meltdown of a nuclear unit considerably larger than Shearon Harris would be expected to cause 88 to 160 quick deaths, 35,000 to 110,000 cancer deaths and the loss of 1.3 million acres of farmland, according to a 1995 study also conducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory.  While that study did not estimate economic damages from a meltdown, the largest numbers we know of range from $200 billion to over $300 billion – or about half as much as the most serious spent fuel accident that BNL reported in the 1997 study.

 

Ø       Over the 27 years CP&L proposes to operate the expanded waste pools at Shearon Harris, the probability of the most severe accident according to the BNL study would be about 1 in 18,000, which is 12 times higher than previous NRC estimates for a severe spent fuel accident.  Chernobyl had an estimated 1 in 10,000 chance of an accident by comparison.

 

Ø       BNL estimates the probability of an accident causing up to 100 cancer deaths and $28 million in damage to property outside the nuclear plant has a cumulative probability of about 1 in 125 over the same 27 year period.

 

Ø       The BNL study did not consider worst case accidents.  The Shearon Harris pools, if fully loaded as planned, would contain more than 3 times as much waste fuel as considered by BNL.

 
“The industry does not have sufficient data to support the claim that a spent fuel accident is unlikely to occur.  They try to dismiss these very severe consequences with the unsubstantiated claim that the event is not likely to occur.”
--David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC
Author of Nuclear Waste Disposal Crisis

Contact NC WARN:

North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network
P.O. Box 61051, Durham, NC  27715-1051
Ph: (919) 416-5077     Fax: (919) 286-3985


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