IEMA says the Fukushima crisis has caused the agency to consider another mass distribution, possibly partnering with other state agencies to get the word out. But the agency will also continue to focus on shelter and evacuation as its preferred methods of protection against radioactive isotopes.
In line with NRC guidelines, Clinton and all other Illinois nuclear power plants have 10-mile radius evacuation planning zones. Within those zones, local and state emergency managers and responders, from firefighters to school bus drivers, are prepared to move affected residents to reception centers located about 25 miles away.
NEIS says those zones are too small and that Illinois should follow the recommendation of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, another anti-nuclear group, which calls for a 50-mile radius evacuation planning zone instead of the current 10-mile zone. The group says there is no safe level of radiation exposure and points to the U.S. recommendation after Fukushima that all Americans within 50 miles of the damaged reactors evacuate.
Sangamon County’s all-hazards emergency management plan says the Clinton power plant is 65 miles away, a distance that “would take our county out of the vulnerability of a possible nuclear hazard from a nuclear plant.” But a look at a map shows that 65 miles is just the driving distance from the plant to the center of Springfield. An as-the-crow-flies 50mile circle around the Clinton plant encompasses much of Springfield’s northeastern quadrant as well as Sangamon County towns including Illiopolis, Sherman and Rochester, according to an interactive map by the Physicians for Social Responsibilty.
Sangamon County Office of Emergency Management’s David Butt says the 65-mile measurement has been in the plan since before he became OEM director 16 years ago and that the county has always followed the lead of the state on nuclear issues. Butt says he’ll investigate the inconsistency as his office works on the plan’s required biennial updates. He adds that he’s confident the existing all hazards plan, a general plan addressing a range of disasters from tornadoes to chemical spills, would work should Sangamon County ever have to deal with fallout from the Clinton power plant.
Butt says Sangamon County’s experience with a major chemical explosion in 2004 at the Formosa plastics plant in Illiopolis would prove helpful during a nuclear disaster. “If there would be a nuclear event at Clinton that did have ramifications into Sangamon County, that experience in 2004 shows us that the plan is addressing the right areas and that we have established good partnerships in order to have the necessary activity that such a situation calls for,” Butt says.
IEMA says Clinton’s 10-mile evacuation planning zone follows current federal guidelines and is sufficient for immediate action.
“If we need to go beyond that area, for whatever that reason would be, we would work with the surrounding counties, or the county outside that 10 miles, to develop plans for evacuation or whatever, just like we would do if there was a train derailment,” says IEMA’s Dave Smith. “At some point you have to say, ‘This is the area where we want to develop very detailed plans for immediate action. Beyond that we go to our existing emergency operations plans that can be implemented in the event of a tornado or a chemical spill or, you name it.’” Smith adds that the 50-mile radius zone surrounding a nuclear power plant is considered a “pathway ingestion zone,” the area where the concentration of radioactive material in the atmosphere is thought to have become low enough that it wouldn’t be harmful upon contact. If consumed while drinking or eating, however, and absorbed inside the body, it could prove a significant health risk. IEMA is prepared, in that case, to restrict the use of any affected crops or livestock.
Though affected, the area wouldn’t require immediate emergency action, Smith says. “We do have plans to go out to the 50mile ingestion pathway zone, but they’re different than the 10-mile evacuation planning zone,” Smith says, adding that, though affected, the area wouldn’t require immediate emergency action.
IEMA says that part of the reasoning behind the expansive evacuation zone the U.S. government recommended for Americans near Fukushima (the Japanese government has only evacuated those within a 12-mile radius) was due to multiple damaged reactors all within a close space. Clinton only hosts one reactor.
Kraft of NEIS is also critical of the design of nuclear power plants in general. He concedes that Clinton’s plant, which began operation in 1987 and is one of the newest nuclear plant models, is a much improved version of those damaged in Fukushima. He adds, however, that Illinoisans shouldn’t be breathing easy. Northern Illinois hosts four reactors of the same model as those damaged in Japan, a fact that Kraft says should concern even residents of Springfield, as “radiation has no boundaries.”
Harris, of the Clinton plant, says comparing Japan’s reactors to those in Illinois and the U.S. isn’t entirely appropriate. “It’s like doing apples to oranges,” Harris says, explaining that one of the unknowns that could have played a roll in the Fukushima disaster is whether or not Japan made any upgrades to its plants as the U.S. did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “All of this is unfolding,” Harris says.
All sides agree that there’s plenty more to learn from Fukushima, though it could be months or years before all that went wrong, and all that could have been avoided, is brought to light.
Whatever those lessons are, the sooner they’re revealed the better, Kraft says.
“The lessons learned at Fukushima are going to be important. We believe they need to come out as soon as possible,” he says. “The farther you get from the disaster, the more the memory recedes. The sense of urgency goes away, and you’re distracted by the current crisis of the day.”
Contact Rachel Wells at [email protected].
