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In nuclear accident, evacuation from Indian Point area would be impossible

Citing plants like the Indian Point nuclear site north of New York City, Mr. Lyman, a physicist and member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, called it “utterly unrealistic” to expect that an effective evacuation could be undertaken should a disaster like the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week occur in this country.

Citing Near Misses, Report Faults Both Nuclear Regulators and Operators, – NYTimes.com,By TOM ZELLER JR. March 17, 2011,The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the nuclear power industry in the United States, came under fire from critics on Thursday for recommending that Americans in Japan remain at least 50 miles away from the ailing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant there.

That distance exceeds the official evacuation zone surrounding nuclear power plants in the United States by 40 miles, said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union for Concerned Scientists, an environmental and nuclear watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass.

Mr. Lyman was speaking in a conference call with reporters on the release of a report examining critical problems — known as “near misses” — at various nuclear facilities in the United States last year, and the N.R.C.’s handling of critical problems — or so-called near-miss events — at nuclear power plants in the United States in 2010.

Citing plants like the Indian Point nuclear site north of New York City, Mr. Lyman, a physicist and member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, called it “utterly unrealistic” to expect that an effective evacuation could be undertaken should a disaster like the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week occur in this country.

Citing Near Misses, Report Faults Both Nuclear Regulators and Operators – NYTimes.com

March 18, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA