Update on Milford Township Irradiator Irradiator taking more safety steps; 3 residents reach deal with company. License challenge remains. Morning Call (Allentown, PA) November 9, 2004 Tuesday 2nd edition By Steve Wartenbergl Three people who challenged the operating license of the cobalt-60 irradiator in Milford Township have reached a settlement with CFC Logistics. Under the negotiated settlement, the company will make two improvements to its irradiator, which uses radioactive gamma rays to kill bacteria in edible and non-edible products. In return, petitioners Tom and Kelly Helt and Andrew Ford agreed to drop all legal action against the irradiator or future irradiator CFC installs at the AM Drive site. The Helts live on Red Bud Road in Milford, the closest residential street to the irradiator. Ford has moved out of the area since the litigation began. However, about a dozen other petitioners, as well as members of Concerned Citizens of Milford, the group that organized opposition to the irradiator in early 2003, did not sign the settlement. Judge Michael Farrar of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, who is hearing the challenge to CFC's operating license by the remaining petitioners and Concerned Citizens, said "the future course of this proceeding can vary widely, ranging from withdrawal of the litigation to an evidentiary presentation on the merits of particular concern." He also said any petitioner who lives within three-quarters of a mile of the irradiator "need, initially at least, simply notify us (through counsel) that they wish to pursue the litigation." Those who live farther away "must, if they wish to participate in the litigation, demonstrate their standing. " Max Geisler, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens, said it is too soon to know what his group will do. "Strategic decisions can only be made after we gauge the level of unhappiness in this community and its willingness to pursue further challenges to the CFC Logistics facility." Robert Sugarman, the attorney representing the remaining petitioners, was unavailable for comment, as were the Helts. The CFC irradiator received an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Aug. 27, 2003, and began operating six weeks later. It is made up of a 22-foot, water-filled well in which rods of cobalt-60 rest at the bottom, encased in a plenum. Containers are then lowered mechanically into the well, where they are irradiated to destroy bacteria in food and other products within the container. According to terms negotiated by Judge Paul Abramson, the settlement judge appointed by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, CFC agreed to install a backup generator for the pump that drives air flow through the water-filled chamber containing the cobalt-60 rods. CFC also agreed to install a "light-beam trip switch" that triggers an alarm if a protective cask with a replacement cobalt-60 rod is positioned in such a way that it traverses rods in use. The agreement also calls for the Helts and Ford to drop all other legal action against CFC, and both sides are bound by a non-disclosure clause that prevents them from revealing the discussions that went on during the settlement meetings. According to Jim Wood, president of CFC, the irradiator was safe even before the additions. "We wanted to find opportunities to do something for the Concerned Citizens even if our engineers and the NRC didn't think it added anything to safety," he said. "I think the petitioners are happy because they see that we are willing to build in even more safety redundancies than we already have in order to make them more comfortable with our operation." Geisler said Concerned Citizens did not sign the settlement for several reasons, even though he said it represents "significant progress in plant design and operation." Geisler said he didn't like the fact that the agreement precluded future legal challenges if CFC elects to build additional irradiators. He also has concerns about the plant's security system and said "it continues to have a fundamental design flaw -- [containers] weighing several tons may still pass directly over the radioactive cobalt-60 sources and fall into them in the case of a mechanical failure or if the operator disables or ignores the new laser-activated alarm."