
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990                   TAG: 9004110363
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

N-PLANTS STILL RISKS, GROUP SAYS

A consumer group said on Tuesday that more than ever nuclear power plant workers were exposed to measurable radiation in 1988, the last year for which data was available.

The study by an energy research project of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, said that 105,265 instances of worker exposure to measurable radiation occurred at the nation's 107 commercial nuclear reactors that year.

"This is the highest number of incidents of worker exposure ever recorded by the U.S. commercial nuclear power industry," the organization said.

It said its study, base on documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, found 104,511 such incidents in 1987 and 100,992 in 1986.

Although the number of exposure incidents nationwide was up in 1988, the number per plant is decreasing steadily, said Joseph Fouchard, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"With respect to worker exposure to radiation at nuclear power plants we believe it has been steadily improving," Fouchard said.

"Their [Public Citizen's] own numbers show that in 1988, the year on which they report, the number of workers per plant who were exposed to any measurable radiation declined to an all-time low, down 22 percent in the five-year period, 1984-1988," said the nuclear industry council.

"In 1987, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement suggested that this level of radiation exposure would result in about five additional worker deaths per year," said Ken Bossong, head of the energy project at Public Citizen.

The exposure also could lead to significantly increased risk for radiation-caused cancers among the workers and genetic damage to their children, Bossong said.

Looking at just the worst cases, the group said more than 12,000 workers in 1988 were exposed to radiation equal to 50 chest x-rays, which was approximately three times the average radiation dose received by each person in United States from all sources.

Public Citizen's report acknowledged a decrease in the average collective radiation dose of each reactor's workforce. It also said that the average number of workers exposed per plant and the average dose of exposure had gone down by 7 percent between 1987 and 1988.

by CNB