Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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Part of the problem has been that there are not new orders at
this point in time. We have seen that particular step be very successfully
applied in both Japan and Europe. I would expect that at
such time as we see a resurgence in demand in this country that
you will see continued efforts to bring that kind of plant into being.
Senator Murkowski. Well, there is legislation now, and I gather
it is not going anywhere, and I think that is too bad.
Mr. Denton. I did want to respond to that. Senator. There are a
few standard plants in this country which look alike and they tend
to operate very well. Wolf Creek and Calloway were a group of
four; two plsuits were canceled but two were finished. Both of those
plants are running very well. That was an attempt by the industry
at standardization.
Palo Verde 1, 2, and 3 are all cookie-cutter copies of each other
and they are operating very well. But what we have is a very competitive
industry with four vendors, each trying to market its product.
So we try to have requirements for simple, ee-sy to build, reliable,
safe plants, and each comes up with a design and so far, while
everyone agrees standardization is desirable, industry forces have
tended to prevent it from actually occurring.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Metzenbaum.
Senator Metzenbaum Mr. Meyers, what are the estimates of the
number of fatal and nonfatal cancers which will develop over the
long term as a result of the Chernobyl accident?
Mr. Meyers. As a task force, we did not make those kinds of estimates
in large measure because we had very limited data on the
actual deposition of radioactivity, or its release in the exclusion
zone around the plant.
Senator Metzenbaum. Did you send anyone over immediately
after the accident to do your own monitoring of Poland, Sweden,
the other nation's of Europe, or did you just rely upon whatever
information might be available in those countries?
Mr. Meyers. We actually sent an EPA representative to Poland
and Hungary, where he essentially had access to the Embassy and
the Embassy grounds only.
Senator Metzenbaum. The Embassy did not actually do a day-byday
count as would be necessary in order to determine the impact,
did they?
Mr. Meyers. We had some there, relatively quickly, within I
think, 3 days.
Senator Metzenbaum. You say you had someone there, but there
were a number of countries involved, and all they did was to monitor.
Mr. Meyers. That is right.
Senator Metzenbaum. So that actually, EPA did not send over
you can buy a radiation monitor for about $150, can you not?
Mr. Meyers. We left the instruments there, so that the Embassy
personnel, the scientific representatives could operate them. The
initial concern that the State Department had was the health and
safety of their employees.
Senator Metzenbaum. What about the 300,000 servicemen in
Europe?