Fw: [RADFOOD] Growing Opposition to Proposed Irradiator

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----- Original Message -----

From: " Mikhail " <mmikhail@...>

<RADFOOD@...>

Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 9:07 AM

Subject: [RADFOOD] Growing Opposition to Proposed Irradiator

> The residents of Milford Township in Bucks County, PA have mounted an

> ever-growing opposition to a proposed food irradiation facility in their

> township. They requested a formal hearing with the NRC, but were

> instead given an informal Q & A session. Despite this setback, they used

> the meeting to their advantage, packed the room with over 400 people and

> told the NRC: " Not in our backyard! " Read the article below for more

> information.

>

> ************

> Irradiator license may come soon, angry crowd told

> NRC says it may make decision on Milford facility in a few days.

>

> By Steve Wartenberg

> Of The Morning Call

>

> CFC Logistics could soon get a license that would allow the Milford

> Township cold-storage facility to start testing its radioactive

> cobalt-60 irradiator.

>

> ''We could make a decision in the next few days,'' said Pangburn

> of the King of Prussia office of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

> Commission.

>

> Pangburn said that Wednesday night in a meeting at Quakertown Community

> High School that attracted approximately 400 angry local residents who

> grilled and roasted Pangburn and Kinneman from the NRC and

> Stein of Gray Star Inc. of Mount Arlington, N.J., the designer and

> manufacturer of CFC's Genesis irradiator.

>

> After presentations by the NRC and Gray Star on the design of the

> irradiator and all the steps it takes to be licensed and ensure safe

> operations, things heated up with a question-and-answer session.

>

> Moderator Jim Linksz, president of Bucks County Community College, had

> asked for ''civil discourse,'' but he quickly lost control of the crowd.

> He started off by asking questions himself, but was soon shouted down by

> audience members, who wanted to ask their own questions.

>

> Jack Sutton, a Milford resident, strode up to the microphone at the

> front of the auditorium, interrupted Linksz and began to ask the panel a

> series of questions. The audience cheered him on as he asked ''can you

> give us a 100 percent guarantee there will never be an accident?''

>

> ''What is your definition of an accident?'' Stein said as the audience

> booed.

>

> ''I can't guarantee someone won't trip and fall and break their knee,''

> Stein added, as he was booed further.

>

> ''Will you guarantee it?'' Sutton insisted.

>

> ''Yes,'' Stein said.

>

> ''Put it in your back yard,'' someone in the audience shouted.

>

> ''No regulatory agency can guarantee 100 percent safety,'' Pangburn

> later said. ''We can ensure a reasonable amount of safety.''

>

> In the Genesis irradiator, a series of 100 cobalt-60 ''pencils'' are

> placed at the bottom of a 22-foot pool of water and locked in place.

> Containers that hold a variety of edible and nonedible products are then

> lowered into the pool. Gamma rays emitted from the pencils kill harmful

> bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella, as well as parasites and

> insects.

>

> Another person asked the panel about previous accidents, and Kinneman

> said there have been four fatalities at irradiation facilities in El

> Salvador, Italy, Norway and Israel, but none in the United States.

> However, he said two people were injured when they were crushed by

> machinery and two people in a New Jersey facility received nonfatal

> doses of radiation.

>

> If the purpose of the meeting was to win over local residents and ease

> their fears, it didn't work.

>

> Members of the audience seemed to get angrier as the meeting wore on.

>

> ''I'm here for my three children,'' a woman said, and the crowd broke

> into cheers.

>

> The fight against the irradiator is led by Concerned Citizens of

> Milford, a group formed to fight the plan. They held a news conference

> before the meeting and several members carried signs that read:

> ''Nuclear Families Not Nuclear Radiation''; ''Cobalt-60 … Too Risky'';

> and ''No Nukes in Milford.''

>

> ''I think the citizens had a chance to voice their opinions and, as you

> can see, not many of them are for it,'' said Skip Moyer of Concerned

> Citizens of Milford.

>

> He added his group still wants a public hearing with the NRC in which

> it can present experts and evidence of the possible dangers of an

> irradiation facility.

>

> During Wednesday's meeting, Pangburn said the NRC had received a

> request from the group in June for such a meeting, but wasn't sure if or

> when a meeting would take place.

>

> ''A request for a hearing does not prevent the issuance of a license,''

> he said.

>

> Township supervisors have said the decision is out of their hands —

> and in the hands of the NRC. At the meeting Pangburn said the NRC ''is

> required to issue a license to someone who qualifies; CFC has been

> responsive to all our requests for information; there are no outstanding

> requests for information.''

>

> A representative from the office of state Sen. Rob Wonderling,

> R-Montgomery, was at the meeting.

>

> ''We're in the process of collecting information,'' said Adam Gattuso,

> adding Wonderling and his staff have been looking into the issue for two

> months. So far, Wonderling hasn't decided his position on the

> irradiator.

>

> Despite the odds, Moyer and members of his group are still hopeful they

> can stop the facility from operating.

>

> ''With constant pressure, more can happen,'' he said.

>

> ********************

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