About EFMR

The EFMR Monitoring Network is a non-profit, non-partisan organization which monitors Three Mile Island Unit 1 (TMI) and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Stations 2 & 3. The Group was formed out of a Settlement with GPU Nuclear in 1992 relating to Post-Defueling Monitored Storage at TMI-2. In January 1999, the new owners of TMI-1, AmerGen, (PECO Energy & British Energy) agreed to terms with EFMR through 2006. Additionally, EFMR expanded its monitoring and research activities to include Peach Bottom 2 & 3 as a result of Universal Settlement relating to the merger of PECO Energy with Commonwealth Edison.

EFMR has distributed 75 RadAlert radiation monitors at 50 stations in an eight county area around Three Mile Island, including numerous colleges, high schools and community-based organizations. Several additional monitors are deployed in northern Maryland close to the York County border. In addition, EFMR will deploy 30 rad alerts in close proximity to Peach Bottom as a result of its Agreement with PECO Energy.

EFMR has worked with AmerGen, Dickinson College, the Environmental Protection Agency, Los Alamos National Laboratories (SWOOPE Program), GPU Nuclear, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Peach Bottom REMP Program, PECO Energy, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Radiation Protection, the Susquehanna Valley Alliance, Three Mile Island Alert, and the University of Tennessee.

EFMR maintained five low-volume air samplers on the east and west shores of the Susquehanna River opposite of TMI from 1993-1999. Dickinson College Physics Department collected the filters and cartridges of these monitors on a weekly basis. Analyses performed included, but were not limited to, weekly gross beta and alpha measurements, monthly gamma isotopic analysis, weekly Iodine-131 analysis, and semi-annual Strontium-90 analysis. The last collection occurred in December, 1999.

In November, 2000, EFMR deployed a low-volume air sampling station at Peach Bottom.

From 1993 through 1999, as part of the Agreement relating to TMI-2, GPU invested approximately $900,000 in remote robotics research. PECO agreed to invest $500,000 in robotics research over the term of its Agreement with EFMR.

PECO and AmerGen have agreed not to store spent fuel or radioactive waste from any other nuclear reactor at Peach Bottom or Three Mile Island during the terms of their Agreements with EFMR. PECO has also agreed not use Mixed Uranium Oxide (MOX) fuel at Peach Bottom 2 & 3, Limerick Nuclear Station Units 1 & 2, and Salem Nuclear Station 1 & 2.

AmerGen has ensured that its work force meets or exceeds NRC staffing requirements and has agreed to pay excess decommissioning costs for TMI-1. AmerGen also agreed not to conduct business with any company, organization or nation that the United States of America is boycotting for economic or military reasons.

EFMR has on-line access to AmerGen's Reuter-Stokes, gamma monitoring system. This sensitive system collects samples, analyzes them, and prints out data on an hourly basis from 16 separate collecting stations located within a four mile radius of Three Mile Island. EFMR continues to attend NRC meetings, and receive regular briefings and updates from AmerGen, Exelon, and PECO Energy.

The EFMR Monitoring Group actively involves all segments of communities living and working in Central Pennsylvania. EFMR is a non-partisan and non-profit community based organization. EFMR was created, and operates, upon the premise that all segments of the community are valuable and must be included in efforts to educate the general public about radiation and nuclear power production. To this end, EFMR has successfully empowered non-governmental organizations, schools, and individuals to monitor for radiation in the environment.

EFMR has brought antagonistic and entrenched entities together and formed a partnership around radiation education and research. EFMR has fostered a pro-active communal tool that allows citizens to be involved in a technology that traditionally has intimidated or alienated most Americans. Responsible educational programs surrounding one of the most controversial issues of this regionÇs history is an unprecedented positive step.

EFMR seeks to aggressively implement and increase high-school and continuing education student awareness and participation in sustainable energy production in Pennsylvania. While students and educators are sensitive and knowledgeable about their ecosystem, they lack a credible educational vehicle to enrich their understanding of sustainable energy. To that end, EFMR has recently contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts about the need and interest in developing a curriculum for high school,and continuing education students. Both entities acknowledged that a sustainable education curriculum for students is needed and long overdue. Moreover, the PDE and DEP enthusiastically expressed a willingness to partner and collaborate on this project.

EFMR is also seeking to strengthen and extend its existing educational partnerships with dedicated environmental education bodies, non-governmental organizations, charter, private and public schools, community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, and religious organizations interested in furthering the mission of increasing awareness, access, and the immediate viability of sustainable energy in Pennsylvania.