A disaster at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Lusby could lead to thousands of deaths because of congested escape routes and other potential problems, anti-nuclear groups said this week.

The charges come as plant owner Constellation Energy has submitted designs to add a new third nuclear reactor to the two 30-year-old reactors at the site.

The Calvert County “is very comfortable”with the expansion, said Linda Vassallo, the county’s director of economic development.

Opponents argue there are only two major escape routes from the county — the Johnson Bridge and Route 2/4. Those routes would turn into bottlenecks in an emergency, as many of the 50,000 people who live within 10 miles of the plant tried to flee.

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Even in a normal rush hour, bumper-to-bumper traffic snarls the two-lane bridge as people drive to and from St. Mary’s County to get to jobs at the Patuxent Naval Air Test Center, said Norma Powers, a 19-year resident of nearby Dowell.

“It would be impossible to get out of here if there was an accident. Getting out on a good day is difficult,” she said. 

The groups also pointed to potential problems with the lack of backup power for emergency sirens and the possibility that emergency responders might abandon their duties to help their families in a nuclear disaster.

“What we saw with [Hurricane] Katrina in 2005 is people will often tend to personal and family needs before their duties,” said Kevin Kamps of the nuclear watchdog group Beyond Nuclear.

Emergency sirens are connected to the local power grid, not the nuclear plant, which generates electricity for other parts of the state, he said.

If the power went out, so would the sirens that are supposed to warn neighbors of a nuclear incident.

Local officials could send pre-recorded messages to telephones, and police officers would drive along major streets with loudspeakers, said Bobby Fenwick, Calvert County’s emergency response director.

“I have spoken with our public safety office and at this time they have not identified any significant deficiencies,” Fenwick said.

Evacuation-time estimates conducted by Constellation Energy in 2000 found it would take no more than 6.5 hours to clear the area, he said. 

But Kamps also said combining old reactors with a new one could increase the risk for a serious problem at Calvert Cliffs.

Reactors are at high risk for malfunctions when they are very new — because there might be flaws in the design — and very old, he said.

Nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in the Ukraine happened during their “break-in phase,” Kamps said.

“It’s an idea that you can apply to any number of technologically advanced systems,” said Scott Burnell, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“But it does not apply to nuclear power plants,” because of the inspections and regulations imposed on them by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he said.