University Daily Kansan, August 19, 1982
Wolf Creek foes want better safety plans
By NEAL McCHRISTY Staff Reporter
Opponents of the Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant, presently under construction, have said that the plant poses environmental hazards and that a better evacuation plan is needed to protect the people living near it.
The plant, near Burlington, about 70 miles southwest of Lawrence, is scheduled to be operational by May 1984, said Lee Koerper, manager of informational services at Kansas Gas and Electric Company. KG & E, Kansas City Power and Light Co. and the Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Inc., are building the plant at a cost of $1.92 billion, he said.
CUSTOMERS THE PLANT will serve will receive rate increases, Koerper said, but in the long run, the plant will provide power at a lower cost than plants that use fuels such as natural gas.
"It will be a means whereby these utilities will be able to provide reliable electric power over the years to the customers, the lowest possible cost." Koerner said.
Plant construction began in 1977 to be completed in the spring of 1983, at an estimated cost of $1 billion, said Bob Wilson, vice president for systems services.
ONE HURDLE IS the emergency preparedness plan that Rives said was being discussed with Coffey County Commissioners.
Wanda Christv, a Burlington resi
oent, said, "I hear more about the response plan as it (completion) gets nearer and nearer."
KG & E has offered to provide a fire truck and a water truck to wash down possible contaminated vehicles, Christy said, but more equipment is needed, such as protective gear for firemen, radio equipment, and radiation protection, said she thought such equipment would be too expensive for the county.
THE EMERGENCY evacuation plan as it has now been presented is being fought by Christy and others until a decision is made. The authorities protect the people, she said.
With the help of the Kansas Department of Health and the governor's office, a plan will be developed that is likely to be near nuclear power plants. Christy said.
The feasibility of the evacuation plan will need approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after work on the site is completed. Other government agencies, Hues said.
THE UTILITY COMPANY pays taxes to Coffey County, so, regarding the equipment, "we pay for it one way or the other." Rives said.
But most people in Burlington do not talk about the plant or concerns they have about it for fear of losing their jobs. Christy said.
"I feel most people are afraid of it, very concerned, but don't know what to do."
Other groups opposing the construction include the Kansas Natural Resources Board and the member of
the Guard, said that the plant posed hazards because of the radioisotopes generated by the plant.
ABOUT 200 DIFFERENT radioisotopes are released by a nuclear plant during operation, Slick said. In addition, the federal government has no plan to dispose of the nuclear waste, he said.
"We feel it's too dangerous, not needed and too expensive." Slick said.
The waste-disposal plan is also a concern of Lance Burr, a local attorney. Burr has requested that Attorney General Roberto Velez plant a law firm in the Wolf Creek plant based on a mid-April decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals.
That decision invalidated the table used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for determining the environmental hazards of nuclear waste. Burr
Nobody knows how to store or dispose of the waste, Burr said, not even the NRC in addition, he said it is not known what the waste is, or how to detoxify it.
"I'M ABSOLUTELY APPALLED that any of these nuclear reactors have been built without a plan on how to dispose of the waste," Burr said.
"They won't even talk about it, as no physicist knows how to do it," Burr said of the detoxifying process.
sites, which have not yet been designated, Rives said. Legislation is pending in the U.S. Senate to decide how to use the waste and what sites to use he
Rives said part of the problem has been due to the inability of the federal agencies to decide how the waste would be used once it left the plant.
SPENT FUEL CAN be reprocessed to make more fuel, or it can be disposed at
"The operator has no choice of what disposal site to use." Rives said.
Rives said that radioisotopes generated by nuclear power plants were less hazardous to the environment than those isotopes generated by plants using coal.
Koerper said that KG & E had received a letter from the Advisory Committee on Community Safeguards that said the Wolf Creek plant "will be in a position to be operational without emphasizing the public health and safety."
PART OF THE process to license the plant involves hearings, reports and plans with local and governmental agencies, which will take at least another year before the operating permit can be issued. Koerper said.
Neither Koerper nor Rives would speculate as to the amount of the rate increase once the plant became operational. Both men agreed the rate increase would be governed by many variables.
Once fully operational, the plant will provide 20 percent of power needs to KG & E customers. Rives said. The plant will be fully operational after a one-year early operational phase from May 1984 to mid-1985, he said.
But Lance Burr said the plant should not become operational.
"We don't even need the plant," he said. "We don't need the energy."
The Sunflower Ammunition Plant in DeSoto remains inactive and, contrary to rumors, no build up will occur in the plant. The company, plant manager for Hercules Inc.
Army spokesman repudiates rumors of ammo plant buildup
Dick Bond, administrative assistant to Rep. Larry Winn, R-Kan., said that a Defense Department memorandum issued in March 1982 notified Winn that Sunflower would begin operation later this year.
The reactivation would require 90 to 100 more employees to begin production of a rocket propellant chemical called nitroguanidine. Bond said.
"I TALKED WITH Larry Winn about this," Newsome said. "But I've had no orders since. We are not producing anything. We are in a state of readiness, as we always are when the plant is inactive."
"We're not increasing production, we're not doing any more than we ever have before."
Hercules Inc. manages, hires and screens employees for the U.S. Army at Sunflower. A spokesman for the Army said that he was tooToo, too was unaware of any mobilization.
NITROGUANIDINE is a component
used for cannon propellant. Sunflower is one of the only plants in the world that produces this propellant, Newsome said.
"So there is a need for it," he said. Stutz said that he had been given no indication of reactivation.
"I've heard rumors," he said. "Depending on what we are asked to develop, it would take six months to a failure, but that in the worst case possible."
"If we were just asked to make what we've been making we could get geared up in six months. With nine employees, we couldn't get much done."
HERCULES PERSONNEL director, Billie Newton, said no hiring was expected, even in the near future
"We are not hiring, or even replacing employees as they resign," Newton said. "We are right where we have been all year, just maintaining the plants."
Hercules currently employs 350 people for ground and facility manoeuvres.
Sunflower has not been in full production since World War II. In 1954, 12,067 employees kept the plant in full production, Stutz said. In 1953, during the Korean War, 5,374 people were employed there.
In 1967, because of the Vietnam war,
4,065 people were employed at the pau-
rent.
Photo by J. SHARP SMITH
The Nitroguanidine Facility at the Sunflower Ammunition Plant is used for producing rocket fuel. The plant, which was completed in 1980, is being kept in a state of preparedness by the government.
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