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tition from the antinuclear Union ofConcerned Scientists, could also be aprecedent for shutting down a numberof other reactors located nearurban areas."Procedurally, [the NRC] has doneabout everything we asked for," commentedUnion of Concerned Scientistsspokesman Robert Pollard.The NRC procedure mandates reviewof the "effects of the worst-possiblenuclear accident—a core meltdown—onlocal residents," for thefirst time requiring reviewers to lookbeyond the usual 10-mile radiusaround the plant when consideringthe government and utility emergencyevacuation plans.The five NRC commissioners ruledon the petition in an unusual decisionto review an earlier action of NRCreactor regulation chief Harold Dentonwhere he agreed to decommissionone obsolete Indian Point reactorbut refused to order two newer onesout of service.Seabrook DemoCosts Taxpayers...One little-publicized aspect of theMay and June 1980 antinuclear assaultsby environmentalist groupsagainst the Seabrook, N.H. nuclearfacility is the cost to taxpayers of guaranteeingpublic safety at the site.When demonstrators attempted tooccupy the Manchester headquartersof the parent utility, PSC, 58 peoplewere arrested. The cost? PSC spokesmanNorman Cullerot said: "Iwouldn't be surprised to see the figureup to three-quarters of a milliondollars."More than 200 state troopers fromfive New England states joined 200National Guardsmen and 100 privatesecurity guards hired by PSC to avertthreatened acts of violence at the Seabrookplant site. The state of NewHampshire has appropriated $177,000to pay the state police salaries; theremaining cost will be paid by theutility.Despite the costly antics, demonstratorsfailed in their stated objectivesto occupy the site or slow construction.—W///iam EngdahlFusion NewsThe Princeton Large Torus reached new record temperatures in May.PLT ReachesRecord TemperaturesThe Princeton Large Torus tokamakat the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory(PPPL) reached record temperaturesclose to 80 million degreeswith an increased neutral-beam heatingpower of 2.4 million watts in May.In summer 1978, the PLT vyas thefirst major magnetic confinement fusionsystem to go beyond the fusionignition temperature of 44 million degreesCelsius while maintaining a stablyconfined fusion plasma. Usingneutral beam heating supplied by theOak Ridge National Laboratory inTennessee, the PLT reached temperaturesof 70 million degrees in 1978(see Fusion, Oct. 1978).The PLT retained the same stableplasma parameters of 1978 at thehigher ternperature: more than 30trillion plasma ions per cubic centimeterdensity and 25 thousandths ofa second g obal energy confinementPPPLtime. The continuing success of thePLT further ensures that Princeton'sTokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR),due to begin operation in 1981, willreach, and even go beyond, breakeven.Exploring the Fusion RegimePPPL scientists are continuing to exploreimportant aspects of the "fusionregime" with the PLT as well as thePoloidal Divertor Experiment (PDX).Although the spectacular results ofthe PLT demonstrate the scientific viabilityof the tokamak approach tofusion, it is actually the more mundaneaccomplishments of the PDXthat are of immediate significance fordeveloping a practical tokamak powerplant design.The PDX, an even larger tokamakthan the PLT, is designed as one ofthe most versatile experiments inmagnetic confinement research in the64 FUSION September 1 1980