During last week’s Labette County Commission meeting, commissioners heard from a Southeast Kansas resident who is concerned about the Deep Fission project.
Marjorie Reynolds resides in Montgomery County, but says she has dozens of family members in Labette County.
Reynolds also brought these concerns to the recent Great Plains Development Authority Meeting, where she noted that she and experts that she knew of were wary of the Deep Fission project. Reynolds asked what experts outside of Deep Fission had the Great Plains Development Authority spoken to concerning the project. Board Chair Bob Wood said they did not have that information as a board, but that staff has been working on that.
“I’ve gone to other experts that are familiar with Deep Fission specifically. They are familiar with the D.C. executive order that is driving all of this pilot project,” Reynolds said. “So these experts are not associated with university, but they are associated with microreactors, with drilling, and with waste disposal.”
Members of the Great Plains Development Authority, such as Labette Health President Brian Williams, said that any additional information she could provide would be welcome to their board.
Reynolds said she plans to set up an educational meeting for the general public. She highlighted her past experience as a New Jersey Institute of Technology engineering student, and military experience working on aircraft and intelligence.
“I’ve done research myself, and I think as a responsibility to the community, that I should be bringing in experts to educate the community outside of Deep Fission,” Reynolds said.
At the Labette County Commission meeting, Reynolds brought Ann Suellentrop, a member of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, from Kansas City to speak with her.
Reynolds brought a list of questions that she had about the project, as well as questions she said others have asked her to bring forward. She noted that commissioners would not have answers to all of her questions and these questions were not directly answered during the meeting.
The questions she poses include: why Parsons was chosen as the Deep Fission site; what testing has Deep Fission has done to prove the casing around the nuclear reactor will be effective; what is Deep Fission’s plan for nuclear waste disposal; and what impact this project could have on residents, livestock, the environment, and outdoor recreational tourism in Labette County.
Reynolds also asked why the federal government was not using the Idaho National Laboratory for this project. She alluded that spilling oil while doing an at-home oil change on a vehicle is akin to radiation contamination.
“You wouldn’t let you three-year old daughter go outside and pour water on that oil that’s been spilt in your driveway and then play in that if you are a concerned parent, I’m a concerned mother. That’s just oil, that’s not radioactive material,” Reynolds said. “Some places have already been set up with protocols and information and relationships with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy.”
Reynolds asked why citizens were paying taxes to go toward this facility for Nuclear research, when they are now facilitating projects through a pilot program.
“I think the answers on the taxes ought to come from the senators or congress, they’re federal,” Commissioner Vince Schibi said.
Commissioner Tom Barrett said that it was a good question, but that he did not have an answer for her.
Ann Suellentrop worked as a pediatric Nurse for 45 years. She said during her career, she learned of a new nuclear weapon plant in Kansas City being built, which is how she came to be involved with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. She said the group presents information to Congress. She highlighted that the group learns from various groups of citizens around the country who live near nuclear waste, nuclear weapons manufacturing, and some nuclear energy plants.
She said she has learned of many problems, and such as an example in California, where two mothers met while their kids were undergoing cancer treatment. They learned that they lived on the same street, and eventually they learned that their children’s cancer was caused by nuclear waste moving with rainfall.
She said in the 1980s, nuclear energy was on everybody’s mind, but interest died down after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
When asked about the plant in Kansas City, Suellentrop said the plant made mechanical and electromagnetic parts for bombs, but the components are non-nuclear. She said the parts are shipped to different sites Schibi asked Suellentrop her opinion on putting a reactor a mile below the ground.
“It’s kind of crazy, you know, it’s kind of an audacious idea,” Suellentrop said. “It’s never been done before. Who knows if it is safe, you know?”
Suellentrop said if an accident were to happen, contamination would occur, starting with the area right around the reactor. She also said it might vent upwards.
“It could maybe crack something or who knows, and seep down and impact the water. That would be my worry,” Suellentrop said. “But they haven’t really produced a plan or a design that I know of — I know very little about it —But there are experts that can look at it and go ‘Hm, there are a few problems here.’’
Suellentrop said Beyond Nuclear is one agency that would have experts such as Director Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps.
“They know their stuff. They’ve studied this for years; decades,” Suellentrop said.
She noted that many engineers she had spoken with said Deep Fission’s plan was “crazy.”
She said she thought it would be good to hear from people who are against the project, to see what their arguments are, and learn about their experiences.
“I think the ball is in their court to get this accepted by the public; to prove that it is safe for everyone. There’s lots of questions,” Schibi said. “So I’m hoping that — and they should — have some sort of public forums and explain this technology, how they think it’s going to work and how it’s going to be safe and let people vent and ask some questions.”
Suellentrop said that is the least they could do.
See FISSION, Page 7.
Public meetings are expected to be held in late January. Barrett noted that the American Advocacy Initiative Director Taylor Moreland has also arranged for someone from Deep Fission to address the group and address questions from the public.
Reynolds requested during the meeting to be put back on the agenda in a future meeting to bring additional experts to the commissioners.
Schibi said he’d like to see such talks take place in a larger venue where more people could attend, but that any experts brought in by Reynolds were welcome to come in and talk to the commission.
More discussion on such an event, or further presentations, will take place after the first of the year.
