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[cdn-nucl-l] Response to Indian Point film
Friends,
Note that Witherspoon is an extreme anti-nuclear reporter, as his commentary
following his quote and report on Dr. Lutzker's comments.
Regards, Jim Muckerheide
========================
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/090904/b0109nukerebut.html
Indian Point advocates criticize film about reactors
By ROGER WITHERSPOON
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: September 9, 2004)
Supporters of Indian Point yesterday excoriated an upcoming HBO documentary
on the nuclear plant as a biased effort that uses "junk science" to raise
unnecessary fears about a safe, well-protected energy source.
Members of New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance, a coalition of
business groups and other boosters, further contended in a telephone news
conference that it would be virtually impossible for radiation to escape
from the twin Buchanan reactors after a terrorist attack.
"The chances of 1,000 people being simultaneously struck by lightning are
greater than the chances of any massive release of radiation from Indian
Point," asserted Letty Lutzker, a Dobbs Ferry resident and doctor of nuclear
medicine who frequently speaks on behalf of the nuclear industry.
If any radiation did escape the plant after a terrorist attack, Lutzker
said, it would remain "in a small area around Indian Point itself, and the
public would not be exposed to more than the background radiation we are
exposed to every day."
Lutzker acknowledged that she has no data to back up her assertion, but
said, "I'm making a point that the chances are so vanishingly small there is
no point in worrying about it. It is so unlikely as to be close to
impossible."
Lutzker's conviction differs from studies by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, which state that the release of radiation from either the
reactor or the spent fuel pools could cause thousands of deaths hundreds of
miles away.
The 45-minute film, "Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable," deals with
the possibly catastrophic aftermath of a successful terrorist attack on the
Buchanan reactors. The documentary was made by Rory Kennedy, sister of
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the senior attorney at Riverkeeper, the environmental
group in the forefront of efforts to close the plant. It airs at 8 p.m.
tonight as part of HBO's "America Undercover" series.
Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents
the industry, said on substance, the movie is "garbage" and represents
little more than "a wonderful, collaborative project by a brother and
sister."
John Basile, a former manager at Indian Point, said if the plant were
closed, the region "would cave in needlessly to terrorist fears, and our
economy would take a major blow."
He said the plant provides 2,000 megawatts of clean power and replacing it
with power from fossil fuel plants means "air pollution would be increased
by 14 million tons annually. It would devastate our economy and our
environment."