HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-12-20I.
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Y
Planning Board
�wn of Dryden
Present: Chw. B. Caldwell,
Zo. S. Stewart
December 20, 1979
R. Kibel, M. Lavine, T. Bonn, C. Dann, TB J. Graham ,
The planning board meeting opened with a discussion on mobile homes, a question
brought out at November meeting by Mr. Hawkins. The town board asked whether the
planning board was in favor of a moratorium on individual lots for mobile homes?
Mr. Bonn stated he didn't want to see a moratorium because hardship for a
young couple to buy a conventional home. Also more desireable than a mobile
park. Mr. Lavine agreed with Mr. Bonn's statement but his concern was on a tax
differential between conventional home and mobile home.
The planning
board
agreed that
they didn't
wish to ask for a moratorium but
would like to get
more
information
on the vast
tax differential.
Mr. Stewart stated that Bob Keech, chairman of Zoning Board of Appeals thinks
some revisions should be made in requirements for sign sizes. Some home occupation
signs too small for snyone to see. The planning board decided to meet with the
zoning board at a future date to discuss this concern.
Mr. Kibel brought up the question as to what is being done with Irish Settle -
nt Road situation, a concern since fatal accident there in March of 1978. Mr.
ibel stated that Mr. Cook had agreed at one point where they were to take Irish
Settlement Road down behind his shed and bring into Irish Settlement at flat spot
and give back a portion of area to Mr. Cook. Thought all had been settled. Mrs.
Graham _stated the county highway said that they don't build roads, they just main-
tain the ones they have-now. The town board has asked them again about getting
something done with the situation.
Chairwoman Caldwell noted couple things at County Planning meeting:
1) Jim Ray wanted to know why Route 13 couldn't go between school and
rest of village.
2) Ag District X61 comes up for review in 1980. Mr. Bonn will look over
manual on it and will see if there is anything planning board to do
and what might we want to comment on.
Old Business:
Noted letter concerning Sutton sub - division from Health Department to Mr
Dennis Lowes. Will discuss in future.
Mr. Lavine asked what was being done concerning a resolution passed a few
months ago on a no passing zone on Route 13 between Ringwood Road and Route 366.
Mrs. Graham will check on that.
Mr. Bonn wanted to know about billboard that was to be removed at Etna Lane.
far as town concerned it was legal. ::State was the one who wanted it removed.
Mr. Bonn will check with Department of Transportation.
I
Planning Board
-2
December 20, 1979
• Mr. Lavine had a letter he received from Mahlon Perkins with an answer to
his question on transportation of nuclear waste. Mr. Perkins stated that any
control at town level would be pre - empted by federal and state.
He also stated that in Jerusalem, New York they were-�putting into affect a
ban on transporting high level nuclear waste into the town. It is in affect now
along with New York City and New London, Connecticut,
Mr. Lavine stated the New York and New London regulations have cone before
the courts and in .both case& the town and city ordinances were upheld. Mr.
Lavine major concern on transporting waste is possibility of an accident. His
minor concern is if truck stopped for a:.long period of time could be a problem.
Mr. Dann brought up his concern with chlorine gas being transported too.
Mr. Bonn.made a recommendation the Planning Board propose to the Town
Board our recommendation that a town regulation be adopted, pattern after the
Jerusalem resolution that would prohibit the-.transportation through the town of
high level nuclear waste materials and chlorine gas.
Motion second by Mr. Lavine. Mr. Lavine stated that the board was not
suggesting necessarily that both issues be put into one resolution.
Three board members voted yes.and one abstained.
0
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Bray - Secretary
I
•
1)1,ERRA.C1XTB radioactive waste
campaign
fact sheet
ROADS d ALL � -WEST VALLEY
Nuclear Transport.: Is your community ready?
'.'A major accident involving substantial radioactive release from
a spent fuel cask would be an unprecedented cataclysm in a major
urban center.-.Megacurie shipments of spent fuel are simply not ac-
ceptable-in highly populated urban centers..."
April 11,1977
Dr. Leonard R. Solon, Director
Bureau of Radiation Control, New York City, Population 7,300,000
What happens
the Town-,of
ment and the
rested."
INTRODUCTION
if the ban on the shipment of spent fuel rods through
Jerusalem is tested? "We'd call the Sheriff's Depart -
State Police to come and have them (the violators) ar-
June 1,1979
John Payne, Supervisor
Town, of Jerusalem
Ppulation 730
When the West Valley nuclear fuel reprocessing plant was in operation, between
1966 -72, spent fuel regularly travelled through the New York State countryside. The
hot, extraordinarily toxic fuel travelled over country roads, past farms, through
small communities, across bridges, on slippery roads, and icy highways to reach the
West Valley site 35 miles south of Buffalo. Spent fuel from nuclear reactors in
Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey, Maine, and two reactors in New York, Ginna,
and Indian Point, wended its way to the pastoral sleepy community that was being trans-
formed, day by day, into a neighbor to a lethal radioactive waste dump.
Seven years later, on May 21, 1979, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission published
interim safeguard measures for spent fuel shipments to provide protection against
possible sabotage. The regulations ( "Physical Protection of Shipments of Irradiated
Reactor Fuel ", NUREG -0561) provide a very different view of the potential hazard of
the spent fuel than did those regulation -free years when West Valley was operating.
*Now the route has to be approved by the NRC prior to its use. The route should avoid
travelling within three miles of a population of 100,000. If by chance, an urban
area cannot be avoided, a police escort or two armed guards is required. Other regula-
tions would include radio contact every two hours and immobilization procedures, such
as deflating vehicle tires or blowing out an ignition, if the spent fuel were taken
over by a terrorist.
H
I ..
For rural New York, this means that most of the radioactive spent fuel currently
accumulating at reactors in the state, the northeast, some mid - western states, and
foreign countries, would be sent through their communities on the way to West Valley,
if it is reopened. iThe U.S. Department of Energy, the utilities, and Mr. James Larocca
of the NYS Energy'0iffice are currently talking of reopening the site "temporarily" which
reportedly means 111,0 to 15 years ". Under the proposed plan, West Valley would serve
as an AFR, an away -from- reactor centralized storage pool, for the intensely toxic spent
fuel which utilities do not want on site at the individual reactors.
SEVEN SHIPMENTS PER DAY
About 30 tons or 60 truck shipments of spent fuel are removed from each reactor
every year. (Spentifuel is fuel that has become so radioactive that it no longer fis-
ions efficiently in the reactor.)This highly radioactive spent fuel would be shipped
to West Valley, toibe stored indefinitely. An AFR such as West Valley would hold about
5,000 tons of spent fuel. Federal agencies (Interagency Review Group) have estimated
that it would take15 years to fill up an AFR, or about 7 shipments.per day to West
Valley. As each centralized pool was filled at West Valley, another would be built.
I
This spent fuel would not only come from the five operating reactors in New York
but from out -of -state and foreign countries as well.The West Valley site would receive
not only the annual production of spent fuel from these reactors but also the substan-
tial backlog that has built up in on -site reactor storage pools. The present policy
of the Carter administration is to take back to America spent fuel from reactors oper-
ating in foreign countries. Since the spent fuel can be reprocessed to make bomb grade
plutonium, the return of the toxic material to the U.S. is meant to further atomic
weapons non - proliferation objectives. This misguided policy changes the U.S. from nuclear
policeman to nuclear garbage dump of the world.
The spent fuel would be cooled at individual reactor storage pools for six months
before transport, though it could be shipped even earlier. The material is so hot that
it must be suspended in water during transport. If this water is drained off in an ac-
cident, the Spentifuel pellets and their zirconium cladding would rapidly heat up. If
the cladding is exposed for ten hours (assuming a 150-day cooling period), a reaction
with oxygen similar to the one that occurred at-the Three Mile Island plant near Harris-
burg is likely to occur. Hydrogen gas would be produced with the attendant dangers of
an explosive release of substantial amounts of radioactivity. Each spent fuel truck
would be carryingiabout 2 million curies of radioactivity. (A curie is a method of
measuring radioactivity. One curie of a radioactive material means 37 billion disin-
tegrations to alpha, beta and gamma radiation occur each second. For a radioactive
material such as strontium, one millionth of one curie inside a human body can be
fatal.)
Dr. Leonard Solon of the New York City Department of Health, who was instrumental
in encouraging the city to ban the transport of radioactive waste and spent fuel through
the City has estimated the health impacts from a to release from a spent fuel ship-
ment to be as many as 10,000 deaths within a few months and 1,300,000 cancers. Genetic
effects would also occur.
Spent fuel would travel either by highway or railroad. There are substantial risks
associated with each method of transportation. The casks for trucks weigh 13 -30 tons.
These casks are tested to withstani fires of 14750 F for one-,half hour. Yet fires may
rage,longer. Furthermore, a hotter fire would result if there were a collision with a
chemical truck carrying organic solvents, such as benzene, toluene or propane. In
this situation, the fire might reach temperatures of 40000 F. Deisel fuel itself burns
at 18000 F.
ACCIDENTS HAVE HAPPENED
0 Fortunately, few shipments of spent fuel are travelling roads and rails at this
point so there have been few possibilities for accidents. Currently, nobody knows
where to take the stuff so it is piling up at reactors. But with the move to build cen-
tralized away- from- reactor storage pools, and to start transporting spent fuel on a reg-
ular basis, the situation will change. With other shipments of radioactive materials,
we have not been so lucky.
Between 1971 and 1975, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation reported 144 air, rail and
truck accidents involving nuclear materials. Radiation leakages occurred in 34. The
number of accidents involving leakages rose to 61 by 1976 and 90 by 1977.
:% In 1963, a dockworker in New Jersey, Edward Gleason, spilled some liquid plutonium
he was handling in an unmarked shipment from NUMEC (Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp).
Three years later, he developed a rare form of cancer. His left hand was amputated. The
cancer continued to spread. Ten years later, Gleason died.
In 1977, a truck carrying drums of yellowcake (uranium after it has been mined,
milled, and treated with acid to extract the uranium is in a sandy form known as "yel-
lowcake ") overturned in Colorado. Ten thousand pounds of the substance were spilled.
It took 12 hours for health specialists to arrive on the scene. Meanwhile, passing
cars drove through the fine radioactive dust.
;; In 1977, a train carrying four 4000 - gallon containers of uranium hexafluoride de-
railed in North Carolina. Uranium hexafluoride is the gas form of uranium which is neces-
sary for the enrichment process. Fires broke out as caustic and flammable materials
spilled from ruptured tank cards. No one knew the location of the uranium cars. Seven -
een different agencies arrived, each with a different theory as to what to do.
ARE COMMUNITIES PREPARED?
Following an accident at the West Valley nuclear fuel rep
the nearby hospital panicked when a contaminated employee was
Except for the surgeon, the entire emergency room staff left w
indicated the worker's high levels of contamination. Are loca
departments and other authorities across the state prepared to
dents from spent fuel and radioactive waste shipments? Who is
regarding proper procedures to follow?
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
rocessing plant, staff at
brought in for treatment.
hen the radiation monitors
1 police, health and fire
cope with potential acci-
training these individuals
1) Form a transport committee and have members become informed.on the hazards of
transporting radioactive waste. 2) Locate the nearest nuclear facility and trace
probable transportation routes. 3) Set up a private meeting (no press at this state)
with a sympathetic member of your town board or city council. Encourage him /her to
introduce a resolution or ordinance banning waste. Take our sample ban to provide a
model. 4) Start educating other members of the board - -offer to present a slide -show.
5) Now start bringing out your supporters and involving the press.
Increasingly, informed communities are deciding to ban radioactive waste shipments
through town and city limits. The insert includes a model resolution from the Town
of Jerusalem in up -state New York. Feisty Jerusalem calls for a $1000 fine and up to
6 months in prison for offenders.
For additional copies of this fact sheet, or to be placed on our mailing list, write
the Sierra Club Radioactive Waste Campaign, Box 64, Station G, Buffalo, New York 14213.
R
The transport of chemicals is increasing every year, as is the number of accidents invol�
ving these hazardousimaterials.
Even if there is not an accident involving a chemical truck, the hazards of our
highways are clear to all drivers. The new NRC regulations will not.help, since to avoid
urban centers, trucks would move onto secondary, circuitous routes, In rural New York,
the routes are notoriously unsafe during the long winter months and in summer as well,
when they are crowded with tourists. If West Valley is reopened, much of the spent fuel
would have to pass through busy ski and lake resort communities.
Casks are designed to withstand a drop of thirty feet onto a hard surface. Yet sev-
eral of the bridges over the Hudson, including the George Washington and Bear Mountain
bridges, over which the waste would be carried are as high as 100 feet above the water.
Additionally, the access bridges to the West Valley site over Cattaraugus Creek for both
truck and train are 1180 feet above the creekbed.
ZU
The recent record of frequent derailments of trains on badly deteriorated rolling
stock offer no better prospect for safe transport via railroads. Train casks of spent
fuel weigh a hefty 7,2 -100 tons, compounding the problem. Railroad casks would hold ten
times the spent fuel of a truck cask. Railroads, already beset with economic problems and
substantial Congressional cutbacks, are not happy with the prospect of increased insur-
ance costs to cover the possible dangers.
Since 1974, the Association of American Railroads has been on record as opposing
spent fuel shipments unless strict criteria are met. The Association recommended to
Congress that "Shipments of casks containing irradiated spent fuel cores should move in
special trains containing no other freight, not faster than 35 mph. When a train hand-
ling these shipments meets, passes or is passed by another train, one train should stand
while the other moves past not faster than 35 mph." Since these recommendations were
made, no spent fuellhas moved by train.
Even if there were to be no accidents during shipment of spent fuel, the spent
fuel cask would expose people to as much as 200 millirem per year_. If a spent fuel truck
is stalled in traffiic or a train is stopped to let another pass, not only workmen, but
citizens in nearby ;cars or waiting at a train station could receive this dose. Although
this specific dose ;is low, no amount of radiation is harmless.
LOW=LEVEL WASTE SHIPMENTS OFTEN POORLY PACKAGED
Each operating reactor produces about 2000 steel drums worth of radioactive waste
per year. This means 50 truckloads of waste from each reactor every year, or about one
shipment per week per reactor. This waste consists of contaminated clothing, tools,
filters, sludges and resins from the reactors. All low level waste in New York State is
currently being sent to Barnwell, South Carolina, but there is pressure from the utilit-
ies to reopen the low level burial ground at West Valley. This burial ground, however,
is unstable. Erosion has occurred. The trenches have filled with water and over - flowed.
After radioactive seepage into nearby streams in 1975, the burial ground was closed.
The low level waste is transported by trucks often with minimal packaging require-
ments, i.e., material packed in cardboard boxes or transported without any packaging. I
one incident in 1974, contaminated filters dropped out of a truck and were actually 1
for two days on the New York State Thruway.
Frequently, truckers handling this material are unaware of the nature of the material
they are transportling.
3
rt .1
Local Law No.1 of the Year 1979
Town of Jerusalem
A Local Law to Prohibit the Transportation of High Level Radioactive Waste
including Spent Cruel Rods
At a regular meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Jersulem, Yates County,
New York, held at the Town Barn, Guyanoga Road, in the said Town of Jerusalem, on
the 2nd day of April 1979, at 7:00 P.M. there were
PRESENT: John-Payne, Supervisor
Donald Frarey, Councilman
Loretta Hopkins, Councilwoman
.Edward Culver, Councilman
Ralph Scofield, Councilman
ABSENT: None
Mr. John Payne offered the following local law and moved its adoption:
WHEREAS, the said John Payne introduced said local law which
final form upon the desks or tables of the members of this board
has been in its
at least seven (7)
calendar days
exclusive of
Sunday, prior to the date hereof; and
WHEREAS,
published in
in said Town
notice of public
the March 21,
of Jerusalem;
hearing in regard to said proposed
1979 edition of the Chronicle Express,
and
local law was.duly
a newspaper circulated
WHEREAS, said public hearing was duly, held at the Town Barn in said Town of
Jerusalem on the 2nd day of April 1979.
NOW THEREFORE, be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Jerusalem as follows:
ARTICLE I
0 Title
This local law shall be known as "Local Law to Prohibit Transportation of
High Level Radioactive Waste Including Spent Fuel Rods."
ARTICLE II
Purpose
The purpose of this local law is to prohibit the transportation of high level
radioactive waste including spent fuel rods:
(a) Notwithstanding any law, order or regulation to the contrary, no
high level radioactive waste, including spent fuel rods from nuclear
reactors, shall be transported into the Town of Jerusalem, Yates County,
New York.
ARTICLE III
Penalties
Whosoever violates the provision of this law shall be punished by a fine of
$1,000.00 or imprisonment for six months or both, and vehicles or equipment used in
connection with the violation shall be seized. The Town does this under Municipal
Home Rule Law #2, Subdivision 2.
ARTICLE IV
This local law shall take effect upon its filing in the Office of the Secretary
State.
For additional information or copies of the New York City ban on transport of radio-
9
active waste contact: Sierra Club Radioactive Waste Campaign, Box 64, Station G,
Buffalo, New York 14213, 716 - 832 -9100
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