EIS-0113_Section_9 - Hanford Site

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Greetings: I • m a 'from Walla Walla. In the ongoing
geologists and also by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The basalt
flow of my life. 1 try to teconCile daily Stress and tension with
is a result of volcanic activity--who can guarantee that for the
potential threat of harm from household accidents, automobile
accidents, crime and natural disaster• to list Just a few. Znviron-
next 10.000 years there will be rt0 movement of the continental
plates? Hot only is the proposed ground site unstable. but it is
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mental pollution in our agricultural communi ty is a so,, and frighten-
located so very close to one of the world's largest rivers. The
ing phenomenon. To top off the knot of worries, the volatile state
Columbia aquifer serves a huge region, irrigating thousands of
of world affairs and the global economy give me cause for great
acres and providing drinking water for large populations.
concern. All of this negative stuff overloads my stress circuits
And why is it that although the large majority of,higbdlevel
causing me to indulge in the all-too-popular tendency to ignore the
waste is produced in the eastern half of the United States that
:looming threat of the Hanford facilities. I • d like to bury my head
In the sand, but soon that sand could be radioactive. I also realize
storage location is planned for the west?How can it make sense to
transport dangerous stuff all the gray across the continent, along
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that the federal p olitical machine is counting on us laid-back
HOrthwaster..r. to remain laid-back. So although it take. gr^_at
energy to speak out. I'm afraid to :keep silent.
Today in Richhand at this .ublic hearing I'd like to address
two items of enormous concern: the increasing possibility of location
of a national high-level nuclear waste repository on the Hanford
reservation, and the potential of a "Chernebyl-:lest", that is, an
accident within the N reactor.
The issue of the repository is one of safety or destruction of
the Pacific :lorthwest--nos politics and convenience. I have read a
..nnary of the OC8'e Graft environmental Impact Statement, and feel
as though the fox has assured me that all the gates and s of
routes that are populated and not alirays sunny and dry? Is the
Population along these intended routes of transportation currently
Informed? It is an irresponsibility of greedy negli gence that
the plants producing waste do not also process that waste on site.
The second item of concern here today: regards the _N reactor.
I join the thousands of voices demanding a shutdown of this plant.
In light of the recent accident at Chernobyl, it is treacherous to
continue to operate a facility that has many similar structural
deficiencies. The potential' for human error also looms large—is
it possible that there exists the same sort of cocky self-assurance
that was the downfall of the space shuttle program? And is there a
real aw.raness of the p ... Ills magnitude of any error?
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the Chicken coop are secure. There is a breakdown in basic language
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usage when it is stated that none of the nroposals would result in
significant impact on the environment.
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The basalt rock of the area is completely inappropriate for
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storage of radioactivap waste, as has been stated byt&Mpt$5n@OERL
JUL 221988 6125
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