Mayor of South Miami: No viable radiological emergency plan for Turkey Point
No viable radiological emergency plan
Friday, April 15, 2011
Fellow elected officials and members of the free press:
I write to you as the Mayor of a city for which NO PLAN EXISTS to protect my residents in the event of a radiological emergency at the 40 year old nuclear power plants 17 miles away.
Miami-Dade County is grossly underprepared to deal with a significant radiological release. I make this claim having now reviewed 1900 pages of radiological emergency planning documents. The County emergency plan list shelters available for residents who would be evacuated from within the 10 miles circle around Turkey point, yet these shelters can hold only 2/3 of that population, with no provision for the greater number of people residing outside. Traffic calculations in the official Evacuation Time Estimate study (paid for by FPL) are based on the assumption that no residents north of SW 152 St will self-evacuate in a nuclear emergency.
Most of the preselected emergency shelters are 15-25 miles from Turkey Point. As Japan has discovered, these areas themselves can be contaminated and placed under evacuation order. The US and Australia are advising citizens to stay at least 50 miles from Fukushima Daiichi, the distance from Turkey Point to Ft. Lauderdale.
The emergency plans include a sole Emergency Reception Center in Miami-Dade County, located at Tamiami Park, where potassium iodide would be distributed as a critical defense against radiation poisoning of children and pregnant women. Last week I got into a 4 square mile traffic jam near the park when the Youth Fair was going on – try it with airborne iodine-131 and cesium-137. Assuming our residents could get into Tamiami Park, the County has declined to tell me how many doses of potassium iodide they keep on hand – until shown otherwise, I shall assume less than enough to treat residents of my city.
County emergency managers are experienced in planning for hurricanes, having learned the hard way from Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, and Wilma. However, they have never carried out a full radiological emergency plan, either as a test run or live run. Key differences divide planning for hurricanes and "general radiological emergencies". Experts can forecast hurricanes at least a week in advance, whereas nuclear emergencies appear suddenly, can further intensify over days, or can be fully catastrophic from the onset. In a hurricane, the spatial extent of the storm can be predicted in advance and emergency managers can evacuate residents before the storm makes landfall. Nobody has accurately predicted the timing, spatial extent, or magnitude of radiation release at a nuclear power plant, or evacuated nearby residents before the initial release occurred. Indeed County emergency managers acknowledge they could be forced to evacuate residents through a radiation cloud.
The local radiological emergency plan only includes evacuation of residents inside the 10 mile circle, and shelter for not all of these. People outside, such as the residents of my city, will be told we are safe if we do not consume locally grown milk and produce. As I write, the wind is from the South at 7 mph; the air my city is now breathing passed over Turkey Point less than three hours ago.
My two year old daughter was carefully screened for explosives before she could board a plane, but we have no viable emergency plan for protecting the health and safety of the vast majority of our residents in the event of a radiological emergency. Such magical thinking cannot keep us safe. Living on a peninsula next to aging nuclear plants and millions of pounds of spent fuel situated on a hurricane-swept coastline we need a fully realistic radiological emergency plan. My citizens demand it and they deserve no less.
Albert Einstein said: "Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act." The emergency planners have erred, and they won't admit their mistake. You know. You have to act.
respectfully yours,
Philip Stoddard
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Dr. Philip K. Stoddard
Mayor of South Miami
6130 Sunset Drive
South Miami FL 33143-3209
305-342-0161 mobile
www.southmiamifl.gov
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