An Initiative for A-Plant Safety

San Francisco Chronicle 3-12-74

 A coalition of environmental and consumer or­ganizations launched a petition campaign yesterday to qualify a nuclear power plant safety initiative for California’s November ballot.

The group, banded together as Californians for safe Nuclear Energy, said  it’s goal is to make certain that nuclear p1ants operating now and in the future in Cal­ifornia, meet “reasonable safety standards.”

Plans to gather 500,000 sig­nature for the ballot measures were announced. at the coalition’s newly opened of­fice here at 2 Rowland street in North ‘Beach and in Los Angeles.

Alvin Duskin. San Francisco businessman an d chairman of the coalition, told a news conference at the local headquarters that the atomic Energy Commis­sion “has botched its job of regulating the nuclear pow­er industry.

“There are serious disagreements at the highest level of the scientific com­munity on safety. Until these conflicts are resolved, we should slow down nucle­ar operations.”

Attorney William M. Brinton, another spokesman for the citizens’ group, said enactment of the initiative would not mean a morato­rium on the building of nuclear plants in California. “New facilities would still be allowed, but they would have to meet standards set by the state legislatures” he said.

The measure would re­quire full compensation — instead of only partial pay­ment as is now required, un­der federal law — for all personal injuries, property damage and economic losses resulting from a nuclear accident.

Among organizations in­volved in the effort to qualify the measure for the ballot are the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, California Citizen Action Group, Zero Pop­ulation Growth and several shoreline preservation groups.

Courts have ruled that nuclear safety itself is an ex­clusive federal responsibili­ty, so the coalition has based its campaign on seeking a law establishing the princi­ple that California land can be used for atomic power plants only if “reasonable standards of safety” are maintained in their con­struction and operation.