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Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 09:42:39 -0500
To: "Russell D. Hoffman"
From: tstaedter@astronomy.com (Tracy Staedter)
Subject: Re: Red Herrings
X-UIDL: ccc85059e8d38e4393835ba9dfa84180
Mr. Hoffman
I'm not sure how you can criticize an article in Astronomy that you have not yet read. The article specifically addresses the misconception raised by activists that Cassini will pose a nuclear threat when it flies by Earth this August. Author David Grinspoon provides sound evidence for why the fly by will occur safely and why anyone worried about it should just relax. If you still have concerns after you actually read the article, please feel free to send a letter to the editor. We would appreciate your comments.
----- END OF INCOMING EMAIL FROM ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE -----
----- MY RESPONSE -----
Dear Tracy Staedter,
Thank you for your letter. You should know that NASA relies on three corners of a deadly triangle to pass Cassini off as safe. When one corner gets too hot, they switch to another.
If David Grinspoon wanted to provide NEW "sound evidence" for how 72.3 pounds of plutonium dioxide on board Cassini is safer than one or at most two solar-powered missions, then he might have something. But where would he get such evidence? CERTAINLY NOT FROM NASA's own documents! NASA's documents do NOT support NASA's assertions!
How does Grinspoon try to explain how you can "safely" fly 72.3 pounds of plutonium dioxide past Earth? Which of the three corners does he run to?
The containment system? NASA's own numbers say it is imperfect (see page 4-51 of the 1995 EIS for the Cassini mission, for example). Does Grinspoon's article accept the idea that IF there is a re-entry, there WILL be a release? If not, the article makes assumptions even NASA does not really dare to make, if you read their fine print.
The route (height of the flyby)? is that where his comfort level rises from? NASA just showed a MAJOR flub in it's ability to control a spacecraft (the ISS). There is many a slip possible. The probe could go dead tomorrow, and if it does, in NASA's own words, (1995 EIS, page B-4) the probe would be left in an orbit which would "tend" to be in the vicinity of ours. If that happens the containment system could, over time, become brittle and useless (NASA admits this is untested on page 4-104). So is that 1173 km what Grinspoon relies on to proclaim Cassini safe? If so, he is ignoring the long-term reentry possibilities completely.
Or does he rely on the third angle, the one where, if everything goes wrong, if the probe DOES reenter Earth's atmosphere and DOES release plutonium, NASA assures humans that, despite there being HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of deadly doses of plutonium, it will all just spread out so thin that "only" 120 people will die? The number has been argued by Dr. Sternglass, Dr. Gofman, and even by other government reports! But does Grinspoon buy it?
Unless he has invented something new to argue with, one of these three triangles HAS TO be the main one that Grinspoon relies on for comfort -- which one is it?
If ASTRONOMY had wanted to produce a fair article, they could have interviewed the opposition and allowed us to answer his statements in the same issue. BUT NO. I doubt Grinspoon contacted many people in the opposition and if he had, do tell how he missed contacting me? Did NASA give him the names of the opposition persons? Does his article mention the actual names of the opposing persons, and the views they specifically hold? Or does it paint us in general pictures only? Does his article include links to the opposition web sites, such as mine, which is easily the #1 site in opposition to Cassini?
YOU claim the activists have a misconception. So that means YOU should be capable of arguing FOR Cassini a well -- so which of these three legs of the triangle do you rest comfortably believing? That it won't reenter Earth's atmosphere? That if it does there won't be a release anyway? Or that if it does, and if there is a release, hardly anyone will get hurt?
I have described the actual misconceptions that NASA and its followers (such as Grinspoon) have. I hope you're eyes are wide open enough now, that you have some glimpse of how it is possible, despite not having seen the article, to know in a general sense that it will be unfair. For if Grinspoon has "sound evidence" it will HAVE TO BE something that NASA never thought of, because NONE OF THEIR EVIDENCE IS SOUND.
When the article comes out, you can mark my words: I'll tear it to shreds in my newsletter. Grinspoon will owe me and my readers a logical explanation AND an apology. But I won't expect it: if he had any real nerve, he would have contacted me already to ensure his article really answered our objections.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Hoffman
FOUNDER AND EDITOR
STOP CASSINI NEWSLETTER now in its 141st issue
----- END OF MY RESPONSE TO ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE -----
----- SECOND EMAIL (TODAY) FROM TRACY STAEDTER, ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE -----
At 01:42 PM 6/22/99 -0500, Tracy Staedter wrote:
Tracy Staedter
phone: (414) 796-8776 x635
Hi!
Don't worry -- I will!
Thanks,
Russell
Here are the facts:
1) Y2K is real. There WILL be problems of some sort or other. The only question is how bad, not whether anything will go wrong.
2) Nuclear power plants are vulnerable to offsite power outages.
3) Diesel generators on site at the nuclear power plants have had a variety of reliability problems which have come to light recently.
For more information, an excellent place to start is THREE MILE ISLAND ALERT. The following information is from their home page:
Y2K Nuclear Power Plant Defects in the United States
Worst Case Scenario -- Station Blackout
* electrical grid failure causes reactor scram
TMI ALERT
...
"The complete loss of AC electrical power to the essential and nonessential switchgear buses in a nuclear power plant is referred to as a "Station Blackout." Because many safety systems required for reactor core decay heat removal are dependent on AC power, the consequences of a station blackout could be a severe core damage accident."
from NRC Station Blackout Description "An outage in one part of the grid can cascade causing ripple effects on other parts of the grid. For example, a generation plant could go out in Maine, affecting power in Florida."
US Special Senate Committee;
Here is a much more balanced obituary for Dr. Karl Z. Morgan than the one which appeared in "the newspaper of record" for the United States, The New York Times:
7 Obituary: Karl Morgan A brilliant physicist
The Guardian
Karl Morgan, who has died aged 91, was a pioneer of health
physics - the science of the effect of exposure to radiation on
health. He was a member of the research group which laid the
foundations for the Manhattan project and produced the first
atomic bomb. However, after 30 years in the inner cabinet of the
nuclear establishment, Morgan changed sides and testified in key
radiation cases on behalf of those who claimed they had been
harmed by nuclear weapons and the nuclear power industry.
The first signs of his change of view came in 1968, when he
became an influential campaigner in obtaining a US law that
required the medical profession to control excessive doses of
radiation during X- rays.
After retirement in 1972 he became more active in drawing
attention to the limitations of radiation protection measures. In
particular, he gave evidence in the suit brought by the family of
the nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood, who died in a car
accident in mysterious circumstances in 1974.
In October 1982, Morgan testified in a lawsuit brought by nearly
1,200 people who accused the US government of negligence in
atomic weapons testing in Nevada in the 1950s, which they claimed
had caused leukaemia and other cancers. He said that radiation
protection measures in the tests were substandard and `not in the
spirit" of what was known at the time about the health hazards of
radiation. He also spoke on behalf of Navajo uranium miners and
their survivors in a case alleging that US government officials
had known about mine radiation dangers but had failed to protect
the miners.
In September 1994, Morgan was a key witness in a remarkable US
government inquiry which documented radiation experiments that
had used human subjects. The study was called an oral history
project, and entitled Human Radiation Studies: Remembering The
Early Years. Thirty interviews were conducted with scientists who
had first-hand knowledge of human radiation experimentation and
therapy during the second world war and the cold war, or knew the
context in which they had taken place.
Karl Morgan was born in Enochsville, North Carolina. He graduated
with degrees in physics and mathematics from the University of
North Carolina. In 1934, he obtained his PhD for research into
cosmic radiation from [*][ Duke University ] , North
Carolina. He began his career as a physics professor but in 1943
was recruited to become a senior scientist in health physics to
the top secret, atomic bomb project codenamed Manhattan Engineer
District.
The following year, Morgan went to the newly-formed Oak Ridge
national laboratory in Tennessee, where he became director of
health physics from 1944 until his retirement. When told he would
be in the health physics group, he was shocked and said it was a
terrible mistake because he had never heard of health physics.
The leaders of the research project said they had been in the
same position. But they realized that since their attempts to
build the first atomic pile, now known as a reactor, would create
a source of intense radiation, they needed to understand how to
protect people. Morgan was reminded that the known cases of
occupational cancers were from contamination with traces of
radium among workers who put the luminescent paint on the dials
of clocks and instruments. At that time, the world's stocks of
radium amounted to no more than two pounds. Morgan was told that
the research group was going to build piles in which the
intensity of radiation was to be many billions of times higher.
These monster piles were to be surrounded with concrete, six feet
or more thick, and Morgan was to work with the group to discover
if this would protect people on the outside. He wrote in his
autobiography, The Angry Genie: One Man's Walk Through The
Nuclear Age, that he did not believe they had ever determined
that it was safe. `We determined what we considered was
acceptable."
Morgan's support for those claiming to have suffered the effects
of radiation exposure surprised some of his colleagues. His
faith in nuclear power had seemed unswerving. In the first issue
of Health Physics, in 1954, he wrote: `We believe that the
nuclear age is here to stay and that its future rests in large
measure on the successful control of radiation exposure. We must
understand the full and ultimate consequences of this exposure
and limit it at a level where we, and those that come after us,
can reap the maximum benefits of this new age."
Morgan is survived by his wife, Helen, two sons and two
daughters.
Karl Ziegler Morgan, physicist, born September 27, 1907; died
June 8, 1999
[*][I] PUBLICATION DATE: June 15, 1999 POWERED BY NEWSREAL'S
Leaving town for a while? Bring your toothbrush. Leaving Earth? You'll need a whole lot more than that. If and when it happens, it will happen by "cocooning" a little bit of Earth and taking it away. This is the place that it all starts with. This is the central outfitter, the resupply station, the mothership. You must love Earth before you can possibly hope to survive away from it.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
To stop NASA's dangerous upcoming August 17th (note new date!), 1999 flyby of Earth by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, with its deadly cargo of 72.3 pounds of plutonium 238 dioxide, arrogantly launched in 1997 amidst strong protests, please start by contacting NASA/JPL immediately and tell them you oppose Cassini:
Cassini Public Information
NASA states that they do not have the resources anymore to answer most emails they receive. Liars! They have $13 billion dollars to play with. They can answer the public's questions!
Here's NASA's "comments" email address:
Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address:
Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.
Be sure to "cc" the president and VP and your senators and congresspeople, too.
president@whitehouse.gov
Always include your full name and postal address in all correspondence to any Government official of any country.
After you have acquainted yourself with what NASA is doing, please:
READ OUR RESOLUTION AGAINST CASSINI!
SIGN OUR PETITION!
CANCEL CASSINI by JUNE 24th, 1999!
Thanks for reading! Welcome new subscribers!
Home page of our STOP CASSINI movement:
This newsletter is free and is not distributed for profit.
Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically.
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 13:42:17 -0500
To: "Russell D. Hoffman"
From: tstaedter@astronomy.com (Tracy Staedter)
Subject: Re: Red Herrings
X-UIDL: d1573020bf053900f8c4da670e8f50a4
I will forward your email to our editor. But I strongly urge you to read his article and then comment, for I believe it will make a great addition to our Talking Back column. Thanks.
Associate Editor
Astronomy Magazine
21027 Crossroads Circle
Waukesha WI 53186
fax: (414) 798-6468
email: tstaedter@astronomy.com
web site: http://www.astronomy.com
----- END OF SECOND EMAIL (TODAY) FROM TRACY STAEDTER, ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE -----
----- MY RESPONSE -----
----- END OF MY SECOND RESPONSE -----
(2) Nukes and Y2K: A primer
----- from http://www.tmia.com/y2k.htm -----
* emergency diesel generators at the nuclear plant fail
* electrical grid or diesels are not restored rapidly
* batteries which power the control room are depleted
* operators lose control of the reactor(s)
* spent fuel pools begin to boil dry
* radiological releases or meltdowns occur
* no sirens to warn the citizens
* poor or weakened communications
* poor or severe weather conditions (snow or ice
* storm) make evacuating difficult
* one-hundred-thousand dead and dying
* trillions of dollars lost
* land unviable for decades
"INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM"
February 24 , 1999
----- END CLIP FROM http://www.tmia.com/y2k.htm -----
(3) Obituary: Karl Z. Morgan A brilliant physicist
----- REPRINTED FROM RADBULL -----
on the Manhattan project, he spent his later years warning
America about the dangers of nuclear radiation
----- END OF OBITUARY FOR DR. KARL Z. MORGAN -----
(4) Leaving Earth: What you need to bring:
(5) Quote of the Day by Mohatma Gandhi
(6) What you can do today to stop the Cassini flyby of Earth:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
(818) 354-5011 or
(818) 354-6478
comments@www.hq.nasa.gov
daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov
or
dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov
vice.president@whitehouse.gov
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/petition/reso1999.htm
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/petition/cass1999.htm
Subscription information
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm (Accept no immitations!)
To subscribe, simply email the editor at
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com and state:
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Written in U.S.A.
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WHAT YOU DO NEXT MATTERS MOST OF ALL!
*** CANCEL CASSINI BY JUNE 24TH, 1999! ***
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CASSINI TABLE OF CONTENTS
This article has been presented on the World Wide Web by:
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http://www.animatedsoftware.com
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
First placed online June 22nd, 1999.
Last modified June 23rd, 1999.
Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman
Copyright (c) Russell D. Hoffman