Comment (3) of Josephine Donovan on FR Doc # 2011-19875

To Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners: As a resident of Portsmouth, approximately ten miles from Seabrook, I am concerned that you haven’t addressed in your draft environmental impact statement the question of thyroid cancer incidence in the vicinity of Seabrook. According to the National Cancer Institute (http://statecancerprofiles.cancern.gov), the incidence rates for Strafford and Rockingham Counties (adjacent to Seabrook) are higher than the national average (which is 11.0 cases per 100,000 for the period 2004-2008) and the highest (along with one other county) in New Hampshire. Strafford County is 15.5 and Rockingham 14.6. Essex County is Massachusetts, just south of Seabrook, is 16.3. In 1999, the year of the tritium leak, thyroid cancer cases in Hillsborough County (adjacent to Rockingham, approximately 20 miles from Seabrook) spiked to 27 cases and in Rockingham County to 13 cases—over ½ (58%) of the thyroid cancer cases in the entire state for that year (NH Bureau of Health Statistics and Data Management, 2006). There has been a dramatic rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer in NH (6.2% increase, 2004-08) and in Mass. (10.1%, 2004-08), as well as elsewhere. While the evidence is not wholly conclusive, it is highly suggestive that there is a causal link between nuclear power plant emissions and thyroid cancer. Therefore I wonder why you haven’t addressed this issue or why you haven’t conducted a serious study of it? I fear that when you conclude that the public health risk of continued operation is “small” (4.11.1; also 9.3.1 and 9.3.2), you are relegating thyroid cancer sufferers to the status of “collateral damage.” Thank you for your consideration, Dr. Josephine Donovan Professor Emerita University of Maine