TheDay.com, New London, CT - Millstone Foes Seek Fuller Review Of Radioactive Releases
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Millstone Foes Seek Fuller Review Of Radioactive Releases
By PATRICIA DADDONA
Day Staff Writer, Waterford
Published on 12/21/2005
An anti-nuclear group urged the governor Tuesday to broaden the state's review of past records of elevated levels of radioactivity in goats' milk from farms near Millstone Power Station in Waterford.
State officials said the review already is ?comprehensive? in scope.
In November, Gov. M. Jodi Rell requested that the state Department of Environmental Protection review records of Strontium 90 readings taken over a period of 17 years. High concentrations of the radioactive isotope, a byproduct of nuclear fission, can cause cancer.
The agency expects to report in early January on whether the readings constitute a public health threat, DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said.
?The governor asked us right from the start to undertake a comprehensive and full review and that's exactly what we're doing,? he said.
Nancy Burton, leader of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, has alleged that Millstone is the source of harmful levels of Strontium 90. On Tuesday, she held a press conference at a former dairy farm in East Lyme, where she described the data as evidence of harmful nuclear reactor emissions.
The DEP is reviewing records of Strontium 90 in samples of goats' milk taken from a farm on Dayton Road in Waterford between 1988 and 2005. The agency also is analyzing records from past testing of air, soil and cows' and goats' milk dating back more than 30 years, Schain said.
?Some of it goes back to before the plant was even operating,? he said.
The DEP's preliminary analysis shows Millstone is not responsible for elevated levels of Strontium 90 in Waterford, a DEP expert said last week. Levels of other isotopes ? such as Strontium 89 and Cesium 134 ?? would have to be present for Millstone to be responsible, Schain said.
?In addition, it is worth noting that the levels of Strontium 90 measured in the area ? no matter what their source ? are not a health risk,? he said.
Burton and another activist, Michael Steinberg, cited the now-defunct Bride Brook Dairy in East Lyme, five miles northwest of Millstone, as a place where Strontium 90 levels reached a high of more than 27 picocuries per liter on July 19, 1976.
They also presented a graph of 87 testing samples that showed levels of Strontium 90 between 1973 and 1982 that they say exceeded average levels found in milk sampled by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003.
Schain and Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the coalition's analysis isolates high readings ?out of context.?
?It's a single data point,? Schain said of the 1976 reading. ?It's critical to assess all of the data across all of the testing media and not to reach in and pull specific points of data to try and make a case.
?The data is not new,? he added. ?It's available for public review for anybody to take a look at.?
? The Day Publishing Co., 2005
For home delivery, please call 1-866-846-9099
"
Featured in Region
Millstone Foes Seek Fuller Review Of Radioactive Releases
By PATRICIA DADDONA
Day Staff Writer, Waterford
Published on 12/21/2005
An anti-nuclear group urged the governor Tuesday to broaden the state's review of past records of elevated levels of radioactivity in goats' milk from farms near Millstone Power Station in Waterford.
State officials said the review already is ?comprehensive? in scope.
In November, Gov. M. Jodi Rell requested that the state Department of Environmental Protection review records of Strontium 90 readings taken over a period of 17 years. High concentrations of the radioactive isotope, a byproduct of nuclear fission, can cause cancer.
The agency expects to report in early January on whether the readings constitute a public health threat, DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said.
?The governor asked us right from the start to undertake a comprehensive and full review and that's exactly what we're doing,? he said.
Nancy Burton, leader of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, has alleged that Millstone is the source of harmful levels of Strontium 90. On Tuesday, she held a press conference at a former dairy farm in East Lyme, where she described the data as evidence of harmful nuclear reactor emissions.
The DEP is reviewing records of Strontium 90 in samples of goats' milk taken from a farm on Dayton Road in Waterford between 1988 and 2005. The agency also is analyzing records from past testing of air, soil and cows' and goats' milk dating back more than 30 years, Schain said.
?Some of it goes back to before the plant was even operating,? he said.
The DEP's preliminary analysis shows Millstone is not responsible for elevated levels of Strontium 90 in Waterford, a DEP expert said last week. Levels of other isotopes ? such as Strontium 89 and Cesium 134 ?? would have to be present for Millstone to be responsible, Schain said.
?In addition, it is worth noting that the levels of Strontium 90 measured in the area ? no matter what their source ? are not a health risk,? he said.
Burton and another activist, Michael Steinberg, cited the now-defunct Bride Brook Dairy in East Lyme, five miles northwest of Millstone, as a place where Strontium 90 levels reached a high of more than 27 picocuries per liter on July 19, 1976.
They also presented a graph of 87 testing samples that showed levels of Strontium 90 between 1973 and 1982 that they say exceeded average levels found in milk sampled by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003.
Schain and Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the coalition's analysis isolates high readings ?out of context.?
?It's a single data point,? Schain said of the 1976 reading. ?It's critical to assess all of the data across all of the testing media and not to reach in and pull specific points of data to try and make a case.
?The data is not new,? he added. ?It's available for public review for anybody to take a look at.?
? The Day Publishing Co., 2005
For home delivery, please call 1-866-846-9099
"
posted by Greta Jane at Wednesday, December 21, 2005
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