From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Dirty Bombs, Dirty Tricks, Dirty Pool: Davis-Besse Newsletter #15 -- June 10th, 2002

Dirty bombs, dirty tricks, dirty pool...
Davis-Besse Newsletter #15
June 10th, 2002
The latest news, views, and interesting correspondence.
Edited by Russell D. Hoffman, Concerned Citizen

============================
This newsletter is intended to contain the most accurate information available anywhere.
Corrections welcome...
============================

CONTENTS:

(1): Subject: nuclear video documentary (ordering info for North America)
(2): Subject: Letters to Editor DAWN (by rdh)
(3): Two excellent presentations in Russia by Karl Grossman (URLs
(4): Ardeshir Cowasjee: For What Do We Fight? (CounterPunch)
(5): Letter to CNN's Barbara Starr (by Hans Karow)
(6): Note to California Senator Barbara Boxer (by rdh)
(7): Pill giveaway recalls impotent 'protections' of Cold War (by Phil Reisman, The Journal News)
(8): NRC Assessing U.S. Nuclear Plants' Airstrike Risk (by Chris Baltimore, Reuters, Wed June 5, 4:50 PM ET)
(9): Isn't a less-than-ideal Yucca Mountain the smarter choice? (Letter from a reader + response by rdh)
(10): URLs for other items posted since the last newsletter
(11): Removal instructions / contact information for the author of this newsletter

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(1): Subject: nuclear video documentary (ordering info for North America):
===================================================

Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 04:34:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pervez Hoodbhoy <hoodbhoy@lns.mit.edu>
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: nuclear video documentary (ordering info for North America)

PAKISTAN AND INDIA UNDER THE NUCLEAR SHADOW

A video documentary from the Eqbal Ahmad Foundation

In May 1998, over a billion people were thrust into the nuclear shadow as
India and Pakistan blasted their way onto the world stage as nuclear
weapons states. This path-breaking 35 minute independent documentary made
in Pakistan takes a critical look at what the bomb has done for the two
countries since then. Senior Indian and Pakistani military leaders assess
the consequences of nuclear testing in South Asia and the possibility of
war. Heads of Islamic religious organizations and militant groups engaged
in jihad explain the hopes they have for the bomb and why they believe it
strengthens Pakistan and Islam. Leading peace activists, academics and
journalists make the case that nuclear South Asia is spiralling into
instability, an arms race, deepening poverty, and an ever-greater threat
of nuclear war, both deliberate and accidental. Through interviews,
graphics, and archive footage, the film spells out in stark and urgent
terms the nuclear danger that now imperils the people of Pakistan and
India and the desperate need for peace.

Produced and directed by Pervez Hoodbhoy; script by Zia Mian

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please fill out the order form below and mail with your cheque (drawn on a
US bank) or money order to:

EQBAL AHMAD FOUNDATION P.O. Box 222 PRINCETON, NJ 08542-0222, USA.

(i) $35 (for the video cassette or CD, including postage and packing)

(ii) $______(optional, as donation for the Eqbal Ahmed Foundation)

Please indicate your choice of format by circling 1,2, or 3 below:

1)Video tape (VHS-PAL) for viewing in Europe/Asia.

2)Video tape (VHS-NTSC) for viewing in USA and Canada.

3)Compact Disk for viewing on personal computers.

Please indicate your choice of language: ENGLISH_____ URDU_______

Your Name __________________________ Email ________________________

Address ________________________ City ___________________________

State/Zip/Country ______________________

===================================================
(2): Subject: Letters to Editor DAWN (by rdh):
===================================================

Subject: Letters to Editor DAWN
To: letters@dawn.com
Cc: ac@xiber.com, president@whitehouse.gov

To: letters@dawn.com
From: Russell Hoffman, Concerned Citizen

To Whom It May Concern,

I attempted to send the following email (which I also sent to you, previously) to an email address in a recent article in your paper, which cited one of my essays about nuclear weapons (many thanks for presenting these chilling facts to your readers, and hopefully, also to your warmongering leaders!).  (The article was included in the original email.)

The copy to Dr. Hoodbhoy did not go through.  Included below are the technical details so your experts can take a look and see if the email address you published was wrong or what the problem was.  If you have a correct email address for Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, or if this one is correct and emails from me are being blocked for some reason (gee, I can't begin to guess why!), I would appreciate it if you would forward my email to him yourselves.

Thank you in advance and thank you especially for publishing Ardeshir Cowasjee's fine article. I hope catastrophe will be averted.

I also hope your country's leaders will demand that Donald Rumsfeld "put his money where is mouth will undoubtedly be", and denounce our own insane nuclear policies along with India's and Pakistan's!  No more "Slightly Depleted" uranium weapons!  No more threats of nuclear "Bunker Busters"!  No more commercial nuclear power plants (shutting immediately, the ones that exist), no more nuclear ships and subs (docking and dismantling all of them immediately).  And most of all, no more nuclear weapons!  (Dismantle them all.)

If he arrives promising or saying anything else, consider him to still be a part of the Nuclear Mafia and consider all his words to be suspect.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

----------------------------------------
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: Letters to Editor DAWN

Your message to Pervez Hoodbhoy (copying me also) has been forwarded to him at his second email address as email contact given in Dawn non-functioning (regret error)
His contacts : hoodbhoy@pierre.mit.edu &  hoodbhoy@isb.pol.com.pk

Regards
--------------------------------------------

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(3): Two excellent presentations in Russia by Karl Grossman (URLs):
===================================================

Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 20:54:48 -0400
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
From: Karl Grossman <kgrossman@hamptons.com>
Subject: Presentations in Russia

Russell,
        FYI
                Cheers,
                Karl

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/grossman1.html
(and)
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/grossman2.html

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(4): Ardeshir Cowasjee: For What Do We Fight? (CounterPunch):
===================================================

Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 19:18:39 -0600
From: Winston Weeks <wweeks22@gmx.net>
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>,
        Preston J Truman <hermit@downwinders.org>
Subject: Ardeshir Cowasjee: For What Do We Fight?

All of your good work was not in vain Russell. Good job. Hope things turn out in this very dangerous time.

Winston Weeks
Downwinders

http://www.counterpunch.org/cowasjee0605.html

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(5): Letter to CNN's Barbara Starr (by Hans Karow):
===================================================

To: <cnn.feedback@cnn.com>
Cc: <Jacksha1@aol.com>,
        "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>,
        "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
Subject:  your comment on Iran's new nuke power plant

Dear Ms. Starr, CNN Reporter
 
re: Your comments today on Iran's new nuke power plant (being built with Russian money and know-how)
I apologize for my  rough comment:
 
I am  a damn concerned citizen on Earth and farmer (with two degrees  I am not using anymore) and I was one of the few actively involved in the Canadian anti-Cassini-Earth-Fly-By campaign.
 
During my campaign, this farmer -just writing to you- corresponded with high profile and respected scientists and medical doctors (including Dr. John W. Gofman, I hope you know him) and got to know all about -finally- about the nuclear issue.
 
I like to invite you to read the Stop Cassini Newsletter  in http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/index.htm
 
in there you'll find nothing but the whole truth about the nuclear issue.
 
I found Mr. Russell D. Hoffman to be a man of not overstating and not understating (please correct me by referring where/when he did/does) but representing the plain facts about the nuclear issue!
Mr. Hoffman is NOT biased and is NOT depending on (ab-)using conflict of ($$$$$$-) interest!
 
Because of the nukes' (that includes every single man-made nuclear particle) dangerous properties (for hundreds of generations to come).......there is no place on Earth for this stuff! whether in a nuclear power plant (to create the alleged clean power on Earth and/or in space) or in a nuclear bomb!
By all the available alternative energies around us, again: there is no place for the man-made nuclear issue in universe!
 
I also do not understand why the UN only (under the UN-flag only) is not looking after peace on Earth? That includes the nuclear threat anywhere Earth. I hope you know  why and on what principles the UN was created after WWII.
 
Please have the courage to correct me if I am wrong!
 
Again, sorry that I sound upset.
 
Best Regards,
 
Hans Karow
S 32 / C 6, RR # 1
OLIVER, BC, V0H 1T0
Tel.:(250) 498 3135, Fax: (250) 498 318
E-mail: core@vip.net

===================================================
(6): Note to California Senator Barbara Boxer (by rdh):
===================================================

Note to California Senator Barbara Boxer

To: Senator Barbara Boxer
From: Russell Hoffman, Concerned Citizen
Re: Nuke plant security issues
Date: June 8th, 2002

Dear Senator Boxer,

I thought you did swell in that Congressional Hearing on nuclear power plant security this week -- assuming that in closed session you really grilled NRC Chairman Richard "Rich Rad" Meserve.  Remember, you could never make it as hot for him as he is making it for all of us citizens out here, thanks to his DEMONIC "HOT ATOM".  10 tons a day, or is it only 5?  Who knows exactly?  Either way, it's an awful lot of "high level" nuke waste -- many ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more than the nuke industry can possibly contain safely, away from tornados, earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, stupid handlers, corrupt container fabricators, poorly understood metallurgy problems, traffic accidents, and terrorists -- the list of threats truly is "endless" -- it even includes man-made and "natural" space debris!

And for what?

To enslave a planet, that's what!  Make the CIA tell you about all the pro-nukers who have been sent out to intimidate those who even SUSPECT that nuclear power is a bad idea!  Have them tell you about all the paid agent-provocateurs who have tried to influence, mislead, misguide, confuse, or just tire out American citizens who have tried to speak out against these horrors!  Don't stop at questions about 10-mile or 50-mile evacuation zones!  Demand a fair accounting of ALL the damage to our democratic principles that the nuclear nightmare has cost us!  Demand to know why renewable energy REALLY has been rejected -- because the pro-nukers, and their buddies in the coal and oil industries, are afraid THEY won't make BILLIONS, that's why!  Demand to see the details behind Shrub's pro-nuclear "Energy Plan"!  And please give us back our FOIA!

Sincerely,

Russell D. Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA

===================================================
(7): Pill giveaway recalls impotent 'protections' of Cold War (by Phil Reisman, The Journal News):
===================================================

Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 08:14:31 -0400
Subject: [westcan] Nuclear threat prompts thousands to line up for "protection" in Westchester
 
And the pills will be given out at Ossining High School next Saturday, 6/15/02.
 
DDeBar
87 Ferris Place
Ossining, NY 10562
(914)739-2700 days
(914)945-0815 eves
debar@bestweb.net
 
Pill giveaway recalls impotent 'protections' of Cold War
By PHIL REISMAN
(c) 2002 The Journal News
(Original publication: June 9, 2002)

Traffic was backed up a mile on the Taconic Parkway at Yorktown Heights yesterday, and not a few motorists were fooled into thinking the delays were caused by hordes of people rushing to collect the most publicized freebie offer since Beanie Baby Day at Yankee Stadium — potassium iodide.

Of course, anybody who frequently travels that scenic stretch knew that the snarl was actually caused by a torturously slow road project that seems to have no real purpose other than to funnel cars into a single northbound lane. This presents an aggravation far more tangible and immediate than the shadowy threat of terrorism.

Engine coolant should be the next government giveaway. Really.

It might be more useful than potassium iodide, especially if nuclear disaster struck on a hot day and everybody tried to head for the hills at the same time under Westchester County's hapless evacuation plan.

But over-the-counter potassium iodide costs $11.95 per sleeve of pills (at the honest drugstores, anyway) and it came as no surprise that some 2,600 people showed up yesterday at Yorktown High School to get their fair dosage of more than 10,000 pills. After all, it was free — and few things in life are free.

Potassium iodide, which comes in tiny white pills and is popularly known by its chemical compound name, KI, is effective in preventing thyroid cancer in the event of an accident or terrorist attack on Indian Point.

However, from a political standpoint, the KI giveaway may be nothing more than a placebo, lulling people into thinking it's a magic pill like Superman's sought-after antidote to kryptonite.

For one thing, exposure to radiation causes all kinds of illnesses, and KI prevents only one form of cancer. Plus the free pills are available only to those who reside within an artificially created 10-mile radius of the power plants. This is good news and bad news to those who buy homes, say 10 1/2 miles away.

The good news is that the Welcome Wagon won't be attempting to deliver free KI along with power-washing and rug shampoo coupons, thus creating damaging questions about the true value of those homes. The bad news is that nuclear fallout and high winds may not follow the guidelines of distance prescribed by so-called experts.

Perhaps more important, KI, like duck-and-cover drills from another era, might make you feel safe in theory while having little practical value in a real crisis.

Chuck Braun, a carpenter from Cortlandt, who picked up five KI pills, recognized the parallel between Cold War paranoia and today's fear of terrorism. He also saw the obvious difference.

"The enemy is unidentifiable today, which makes it worse," he said. "You can't point a finger. You feel that you're exposed to wherever fate is going to lead, because you have no way to protect yourself.

"I think that's the biggest thing causing anxiety."

Braun held up the gray foil strip that contained his KI and said, "I think these will take away some of the people's anxiety, even though they might not help them at all."

Like many others who lined up for the free KI, Braun was realistic. More than anything, he was getting the pills for his children, he said.

Elena Sabatini echoed that sentiment. She had no illusions that the KI made her any safer.

"No," she said. "It's really for our grandkids, to make sure they have it and hope to hell they get out of here before they need their next dose."

Sabatini moved into her house about 15 years ago. From the beginning, she was uneasy about Indian Point.

"We've never been happy about being this close to it," she said. "The first thing we did when we moved in was put up a sign — 'Five miles from Ground Zero' — which lasted 24 hours before somebody ripped it down."

Victoria Hochman, who works in County Executive Andrew Spano's press office and is well-seasoned in the ways of journalism, noted the high media interest in the free KI event. We also shared some laughs over the dumber reporter questions. In that spirit of joviality, I was tempted to ask if KI came in a breath mint.

Instead, I reflected on Hochman's boss and on how the KI giveaway was mostly a gimmick and a political wash.

For while Spano's constituents (Yorktown Heights is his hometown) were lining up to get the pills, they were also sidling up to sign petitions offered by the Yorktown Close Indian Point group. Spano does not want to close Indian Point and has resisted all efforts since Sept. 11 to get him to turn against the nuke facility and its owners, the giant energy firm Entergy.

That he inadvertently gave his growing number of vocal opponents a boost yesterday must have been a bitter pill. A bitter pill, indeed.

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(8): NRC Assessing U.S. Nuclear Plants' Airstrike Risk (by Chris Baltimore, Reuters, Wed June 5, 4:50 PM ET):
===================================================

NRC Assessing U.S. Nuclear Plants' Airstrike Risk
Wed Jun 5, 4:50 PM ET
By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, under pressure
from lawmakers to do more to safeguard the nation's 103 nuclear power
plants, said on Wednesday it was analyzing what devastation might occur if
a fuel-laden commercial airliner crashed into a reactor.
 
The agency may also order nuclear power plants to conduct more frequent
drills against potential sabotage or terrorist attacks, NRC Chairman
Richard Meserve told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

As a part of the agency's review of security measures since the deadly
Sept. 11 hijack attacks, Meserve said the agency is conducting a "major
engineering evaluation" of nuclear plant vulnerability to airplane strikes.

Some U.S. lawmakers and activist groups are concerned that a Sept. 11-type
attack against a nuclear power plant would release deadly radioactive
materials that could spread for miles.

"Civilian nuclear power plants are at the top of the list of targets,"
Democratic Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts testified, pointing to plant
diagrams found in caves abandoned in Afghanistan (news - web sites) by al
Qaeda, the group Washington blames for the hijack attacks.

Meserve acknowledged that "no existing nuclear facilities were specifically
designed to withstand a deliberate, high-velocity, direct impact of a large
commercial airliner."

At the same time, the reinforced concrete containment structure around U.S.
nuclear plant reactors are strong enough to turn away "tornadoes,
hurricanes, fires, floods and earthquakes (news - web sites)," he said.

As a part of its study, Meserve said the NRC may ask Sandia National
Laboratories to create computer models detailing the destruction that could
happen if a commercial airliner made a direct hit on a nuclear plant.

"We're evaluating (airplane strikes) ... for various types of plants and we
may end up doing it for each plant," Meserve told reporters after the
hearing. In 1988, Sandia conducted a related test and slammed an F-4
Phantom fighter jet into a concrete block at 481 miles per hour to measure
the force of the impact of the jet. The aircraft's fuel tanks were filled
with water instead of flammable fuel.

The test showed the F-4 broke up and only penetrated several inches.

But the 1988 test was not designed to measure the strength of nuclear plant
containment structures. "We don't make any claims as to having tested a
containment structure," a Sandia spokesman said.

The Senate committee is considering Democratic-proposed legislation to
federalize the privately employed security guards at plants.

The NRC and U.S. utilities oppose making nuclear plant security guards
federal employees. They also object to proposals to station military
anti-aircraft defenses around nuclear plants to shoot down attackers.

Such measures could "lead to significant collateral damage to plant workers
and members of the public," Meserve warned, calling airport security
measures the best way to guard against attack.

Republican committee members criticized the chairman, independent Jim
Jeffords of Vermont, for holding an open hearing on nuclear plant security.
They demanded that any future hearings on such a security-sensitive topic
be held behind closed doors.

"It's safe to say that the people that want to hurt us are watching," said
Robert Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, commenting on the hearing's live
television coverage.

Jeffords countered that the public "has a right to know what's going on,"
and pointed out that he scheduled a closed-door nuclear security briefing
last year.

Nuclear power plants provide about 20 percent of the nation's electricity.

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(9): Isn't a less-than-ideal Yucca Mountain the smarter choice? (Letter from a reader + response by rdh):
===================================================

At 02:32 AM 6/7/02 , Qqwwe@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 05/28/02 2:26:58 AM Central Daylight Time,
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com writes:

<< Yucca Mountain won't even be big enough! >>

Would you please address the question of whether, apart from any future use
of nuclear power, it would be better to collect and store existing waste at
Yucca Mountain than to leave it exposed and relatively unprotected
(corrosively and defensively) at hundreds of scattered makeshift "storage"
sites around the country.  In other words, if you have to choose between
Yucca Mountain and the status quo, isn't a less-than-ideal Yucca Mountain the
smarter choice?  Thank you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Qqwwe@aol.com
Subject: Re: Davis-Besse Newsletter #13, May 27th, 2002  -- What d

Hi,

There ARE other choices besides these two --none very good or safe -- but all choices worth endorsing even a little require shutting down the nuclear power plants FIRST.

No reasonable choice (or half-way reasonable choice) can be accomplished as long as new nuke waste is being created every day which will also be unprotected and need to be stored, reprocessed. or "transmuted" (if possible!) or something -- moved, if nothing else.

So until the plants are closed, it doesn't much matter what sort of repository is proposed, it will be useless.  So although I do, not surprisingly, have some ideas as to what we should do about the waste, I don't think they are worth discussing until we "shut off the spigot".  I'd hate to see my suggestion later used as a "solution", to keep the plants open.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

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(10): URLs for other items posted since the last newsletter:
===================================================

Other new items distributed since the last newsletter:

NUKE TERRORISM 101: Media frenzy today! Get your hot schedule! Plop those tapes into your VCRs, folks!
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/onofre/2002/bladder.htm

Four letters regarding India, Pakistan, and Kashmir (with 1 response by rdh):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuk2002a.htm

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(11): Removal instructions / contact information for the author of this newsletter:
===================================================

This newsletter was written by Russell D. Hoffman  To subscribe or to unsubscribe, please email me at:
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

Please include a personal note of some sort.  Thank you!