Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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The Chairman. I do look forward to hearing from the witnesses,
but that is one of the things that I think is essentially from my
own standpoint; that we understand what the hearings are trying
to do, and that is get facts and not hype emotions.
With that, we will call our first panel. The first panel consists of
Mr. Sheldon Meyers, Acting Director, Office of Radiation Programs,
the Environmental Protection Agency; Mr. Harold Denton,
Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, of the NRC; and
from the Department of Energy, Ms. Mary Walker, Assistant Secretary,
Environment, Safety and Health; Dr. Delbert Bunch,
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Reactor Deployment; Mr. Troy Wade,
Manager, DOE-Idaho Operations Office, U.S. Department of
Energy.
If you ladies and gentlemen will take your place at the witness
table, please.
I would note that there are several people who have accompanied
these witnesses who may be called upon to supply answers or
information. They are seated in the front row and available for
consultation, if that is necessary.
The prepared statements of each of you will be placed in the
record in full, and if you can summarize, hit the high points, make
the points that you think are essential, we would appreciate it.
We will start with Mr. Meyers.
STATEMENT OF SHELDON MEYERS, ACTING DIRECTOR, OFFICE
OF RADIATION PROGRAMS, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
Mr. Meyers. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and members of the
committee. I am going to describe for you this morning the activities
of the President's Interagency Task Force on the Soviet Nuclear
Accident, and also describe for you EPA's environmental radiation
monitoring system, otherwise known as ERAMS, which was
instrumental in collecting data in this country as a result of the
accident in the U.S.S.R.
As you have already stated, the accident occurred at approximately
1:30 a.m., Saturday, April 26. On Monday, April 28, the first
reports were received from Sweden, indicating that a significant increase
in levels of radioactivity were detected and they suspected a
major nuclear accident had occurred in a powerplant in the Soviet
Union.
President Reagan established the Interagency Task Force on the
accident on Tuesday, April 29. Lee Thomas, Administrator of EPA
was named to head the task force. The task force included representatives
from 15 departments and agencies.
Meetings were held daily from April 30 through May 14, with
the exception of May 10, 11, and 13: and on May 14, it was decided
that further meetings were not warranted unless something unforeseen
took place.
The work of the task force was to assess the accident and the situation
in Europe, to monitor environmental radioactivity levels in
this country, to determine the potential for health and environ-
and to provide the best and most current informa-
mental effects,
tion to public officials, the press, and to the U.S. citizenry.