The thick door of the equipment entrance to the Unit 2 reactor stands open on its tracks during a tour of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala. The door shows the thickness of the primary containment structure that houses each reactor.Anti-nuclear groups, including some local ones, wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday asking it to require distinctive visual dye markers on normal, permitted radiation emission releases.
The groups say the coloring, similar to that used in natural gas and propane odor markers, would make radiation releases easily identifiable to protect the public.
The groups also want NRC to require that the public be alerted via news reports — like pollen alerts — to each release of radiation from venting, fuel transfers or any other accidental, intentional or incidental release of radioactive emissions to air, land or water.
“We put odor in gas and hear pollen counts on weather reports for our protection, but when it comes to radiation emissions from nuclear power plants, we don’t know when, where or how much,” said Gretel Johnston, a Scottsboro, Ala., member of the Mothers Against Tennessee River Radiation and the Bellefonte Efficiency & Sustainability Team.
Both groups signed the Dec. 11 letter, which included two other requests: that stored nuclear waste be moved as quickly as possible from pools at nuclear plants to safer dry cask storage, and that nuclear plants be phased out.