Pennsylvania’s Governor Calls for More TMI Hearings

Reopening a reactor at Three Mile Island, site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident, would be a “gamble in the darkness” unless there are more hearings, Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh warned Wednesday.

In an impassioned statement to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the governor said he is not an ideological opponent of commercial nuclear power but he urged the NRC to settle health and safety issues “before you even think about cranking up that reactor again.”

At issue is whether to reopen the undamaged Unit 1 reactor, which was closed for maintenance when its twin, Unit 2, suffered a partial meltdown in March, 1979. Unit 1 has not been opened since and opponents of a restart assert that there is no assurance it can be operated safely.

Although the NRC has conducted dozens of hearings on whether to lift the ban on opening the unit, critics have complained that hearings specifically on the health and safety issues are needed.

Jammed, Raucous Session

Thornburgh, the state’s two senators and several Pennsylvania congressmen spoke at a jammed, sometimes raucous session in an effort to persuade the NRC to vote against the restart when it meets to decide the issue next Wednesday.

However, the pleas appear likely to fall on deaf ears. In a 3-2 vote, the NRC declared last February that there would be no further hearings, and Chairman Nunzio J. Palladino said Wednesday: “Certainly it is time for us to cope with the facts we have and see where we come out.”

Nevertheless, Thornburgh, encouraged by applause and shouts from Pennsylvanians in the audience, asserted that the health issues, along with questions about whether the facility is properly managed, necessitate open hearings by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, which falls under the direction of the NRC’s five commissioners.

NRC Criticized

The NRC has come under attack for its handling of an investigation into nuclear activists’ charges of shoddy management practices by the reactor’s operator, GPU Nuclear Corp.

At the session Wednesday, Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.) said that the “serious allegations” need a public airing. “Failure to hold hearings creates the appearance, deserved or not, of a cover-up of something by someone, and such appearances only serve to undermine the credibility of this commission,” he said.

But officials of GPU and the plant’s owner, General Public Utilities Corp., told the NRC that the plant is safe. “The TMI-1 plant is ready to start up,” said Philip R. Clark, president and chief executive officer of GPU Nuclear Corp.

Lawmaker Backs Restart

Also, Rep. Don Ritter (D-Pa.) broke ranks with his fellow Pennsylvania delegation members and said that the NRC already has “an abundance of information” with which to make a restart decision. Ritter, who supports a restart and does not represent the central Pennsylvania area affected by the accident, said: “There are other citizens in the state of Pennsylvania who should be represented and I’m trying to do my best on their behalf today.”

His comment brought derision and boos from many in the audience.

Some at the session spoke of continuing apprehension about nuclear power since the accident. Susan Spangler, who lives in Harrisburg, five miles from the reactors, called the meltdown a “lesson and a premonition of something worse to come.” Spangler, a member of Three Mile Island Alert, a public interest group opposing the restart, said in an interview that the reactor should remain shut because “the people have gone through enough already.”