nuclear-news

The report by the Government Accountability Office, which acts as the investigative arm of Congress, challenges a three-decade-old fundamental of emergency planning around American nuclear power plants: that preparations for evacuation should focus on people who live within 10 miles of the site.

The GAO found that people living beyond the official 10-mile evacuation zone might be so frightened by the prospect of spreading radiation that they would flee of their own accord, clog roads, and delay the escape of others. The investigators said regulators have never properly studied how many people beyond 10 miles would make their own decisions to take flight, prompting what is called a “shadow evacuation.”

As a result, the GAO report says, “evacuation time estimates may not accurately consider the impact of shadow evacuations.”……

The investigation was requested by four U.S. senators: Democrats Barbara Boxer of California, Robert P. Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont. They asked for the report in 2011 in response to an Associated Press investigative series reporting weaknesses in community planning for nuclear accidents, including the likelihood of surprisingly large shadow evacuations…… http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/feds_sound_alarm_on_nuclear_ev.html