LI lawmaker calls for change in nuke rules

Hoping to force the closure of the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut, an East End lawmaker Tuesday called on federal officials to more than double the radius in which localities would be required to establish evacuation plans around nuclear facilities.

In a letter to several members of Congress, Suffolk County Legis. Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) noted that Japanese authorities evacuated a 25-mile area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant after its radiation leak. Much of the North Fork and South Fork lie across Long Island Sound within that distance of the Millstone plant in Waterford, Conn.

However, the federal government only requires evacuation plans for a 10-mile radius around nuclear plants, Schneiderman wrote to Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, and Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). He asked Congress to require plans for an expanded radius, in part to ensure more extensive planning for a disaster.

But in an interview, Schneiderman said he hoped the development of a broader plan would force the plant's closure.

"There would be no effective way to evacuate," he said. "So there shouldn't be a plant, especially an aging one, in this district."

Gillibrand, Schumer and Bishop's offices said they are studying the issue. David McIntyre, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that requiring evacuation plans for a larger area would likely be discussed by an NRC task force looking at nuclear safety in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.