Denenberg hits reactors
By STEVE IVEY
Collegian Managing Editor
Five million people may die and
billions of dollars of property may be
destroyed if an accident occurs at a
nuclear powerplant, according to
Herbert S. Denenberg, state Insurance
Commissioner.
Because of this "risk and uncertainty
about nuclear reactors, they probably
shouldn't be built at all," Denenberg told
The Daily Collegian.
Colleges having reactors should shut
them down too, Denenberg said, adding
"College reactors are not really watched
as closely as they should be and safety
precautions aren't as good as in the
bigger reactors."
He said because insurance :'com
panies only will cover college reactors
for $250,000 while they give $95 million
coverage to utility's reactors, college
reactors are risky and should be shut
down.
Denenberg held two days of public
hearings last month about the nuclear
powerplants, and heard such witnesses
as Ralph Nader Massachusetts Institute
of Technology physics professor, .Henry
Kendall, the Atomic Energy
Commission, the Pennsylvania Electric
Association;•and the Atomic Industrial
Forum.
"OUr conclusion," Denenberg said,
"was that the public does not have
adequate insurance protection nor does
it have adequate legal protection" in the
event of a nuclear accident.
He said he also believes utility
Nuclear reactor director defends
facility against accident charges
By MICHAEL SOLLY
Collegian Staff Writer
"A strong radiation release from this reactor cannot
happen. You are postulating that everything would fail at
once, and in this case that is almost completely impossible."
Dr. Samuel Levine, director of the BrOzeale Nuclear
Reactor facility, was defending the reactor's safety
procedures against questions of radiation accidents raised by
Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Herbert Denenberg.
Denenberg told The Daily Crillegian in Atigust he felt the
$560 million insurance ceiling on both nuclear research and
larger nuclear power reactors was not enough to cover a
major, radiation release in a populated area. Expressing
concern over possible accidents, Denenberg 'said only a few
dollars for every $lOO damage would be reimbursed to victims
of reactor failures.
`Levine said Denenberg never contacted anyone in the
reactor program in the issue, and he had never been to the
facility or reviewed its operations.
"Scare tactics are common with nuclear systems because of
the public's natural fear of unfamiliar things," Levine said.
"But the public doesn't realize the priority given safety
considerations in the construction of any. reactor anywhere.
They've been operating safely on land and in submarines
since 1955.
"When I first went into the nuclear business I was very
surprised at the safety attitudes," he 'said. r"We set up and
analyzed plans for even the most unthinkable disasters."
Levine said those experiences led him to believe chances of
a majgi radiation leak from nuclear reactors was extremely
small. "It would be more realistic to worry about a jetliner
crashing into Beaver Stadium during a football game," he
noted.
"It is possible to imagine severe damage to a reactor plant
by some 'sort of structural breakdown or a failure in the
control systems," Levine said, "but there would be little
damage done to the surrounding areas." He added there were
alarms arid backup control systems to ensure against
destructive simultaneous failures by shutting down operations
companies will never be able to provide
adequate protection because the
insurance companies refuse to insure
them . for more than $95 million.
lAn accident at a reactor would
probably cost billions of dollars,
Denenberg said, adding that in such a
case, "the public would just be out of
luck."
Denenberg said :the best index of a
firm's safety is the, amount of insurance
it carries. "If the insurance companies
won't insure something, it means that
they don't have confidence in its safety."
He said the nuclear reactor's
insurance is small when compared to the
half-billion dollars worth of insurance
some airlines carry. It may be that
utilities do not deserve any more
insurance because they are so
hazardous," he added.
"We feel that the AEC and the nuclear
establishment have covered up this
issue," Denenberg said. "You've - got the
nuclear establishment saying that they
can run a perfect technology forever
without a major catastrophe. But in
every other technology we've ever had
—1 airlines, space there have been
disasters."
Denenberg added, "Those same guys
who are telling us that they can run a
perfect. technology and never have
accidents, are the same guys building
toasters, and they can't even make their
claim toasters work."
There how are 35 nuclear powerplants
operating while 57 are under constriction
and an additional 81 are being planned.
in the event of malfunctions
The chances of a reactor 'plant being daniaged in that
manner are much greater - than a large-scale radiation
release, he said. "But the utilities can't afford to have even
that happen: Reactor cores cost about $2O to $3O million each.
You can imagine how concerned they are about safety,"
Levine said.
Levine also was critical of published reports by 'University
of Pittsburgh radiologist Ernest Sternglass that allegedly
related an increase in the State College infant mortality rate
to increases in radiation leakage from the reactor.
"The radiation releases nowhere approaCh 'dangerous
levels;" Levine said. Sternglass used 1962 as his base year,
when the area infant mortality rate was at its lowest recorded
level. "It had nowhere to go but Up," Levine saki '
"He just graphed the mortality rates and leakage rates and
pulled out the parts that happenedto coincide," Levine added.
"We did the same thihg. We found the mortality rate closely
coincides to the increase in attendance of the Navy football
games over those years. Maybe the loud mobs who attend
those gimes have something to do with it."
Asked about the concern over waste disposal, Levine said
new technology has been developed to ensure safe disposal of
waste products in solid form, and he said he anticipated a
monitored storage facility where all the nation's radioactive
waste could be stored on a 10-acre site.
The $2 million Breazeale reactor, compleced in 1955,
consists of 100 rods of enriched Uranium fuel immersed 24 feet
below ,the surface of a 71,000 gallon pool. Water [constantly is
circulated to remove the heat created by nuclear pssion.
Research programs in nuelehr medicine now are being
conducted at Breazeale under state and federal contracts.
'minimum:l 11111111 l
;
Denenberg said, "Now we are only
talking about 35 in the whole United
Statei. But by the year 2000, there will be
1,000 jof them and then we have the
problems of transporting their
radioactive material and storing the
nuclear wastes.
"I would rather take an atomic bomb
than a nuclear power-plant," he said.
"At least when an atomic bomb goes off
you know something's happened. With
radiation you never know."
According to Denenberg, "even the
friends of the Atomic Energy
Commission say that it has not treated
the pliblic honestly; they've held ',hack
information and failed to disclose more.
It's a bad outfit and it's behaved as an
adjunct to - -the nuclear establishment."
DenOnberg said his goal is to stop new
construction on reactors and close down
presently operating ones.
"Even if insurance can be produced, I
don't think these plants should operate
because of the real loss of lives that
might I come about if there las an
accident."
"We Ishouldn't run the risk of killing
five million people just for some
electricity," he added.
Denenberg said that during the August
hearings, "we put out 'A <Shopper's
Guide to Non-Nuclear Insurance.' The
point is; that you don't have insurance on
nuclear powerplants, and there is no
way you can get insurance. The only
person .vho can write insurance on this
would be God, and He isn't."
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"We shouldn't
run the risk
of killing five
million people
just for some
electricity"
—Denenberg
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, The Daily Collegian Friday, September 14, 1973-3
~ ~
Photo by Steve Ivey