Re: Airplane strikes on nuclear power plants
To: Bob Aldrich <boba@energy.ca.gov>, graydavis@governor.ca.gov, "Barbara Boxer, Senator (CA, D)" <senator@boxer.senate.gov>
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: Where's your sense of prudence, Mr. Robbins? (Airplane strikes on NPPs)
To: Mr. Glenn Mills
From: Russell Hoffman
cc: NRC, CPUC points of contact
Re: Airplane strikes on nuclear power plants
Date: September 15th, 2001
Dear Mr. Mills,
Thank you for sending your emails shown below to Gary Robbins at the Orange County (CA) Register. I hope he has read them. They are chilling.
Fortunately the 9/11 terrorists apparently bought the hype the Nuclear Regulatory Commission puts out about how safe and robust these plants are -- unless the fourth target was a nuclear power plant.
I know I lost friends, and possibly relatives too, on Tuesday. I went to school in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and was born in CT, and lived in southwestern CT for 30+ years of my life. I also lived in NYC for a while.
I shudder to think what the fourth target was. The Capitol? The White House? Three Mile Island? I don't want to lose a whole city to an even more devastating (but vastly easier to pull off) terrorist attack than hijacking four commercial aircraft and ramming them into two massive skyscrapers and the Pentagon (one of the largest buildings in the world).
The NRC got a "bye" on this one. They -- and we -- may not be so lucky next time.
Other terrorists won't be fooled, any more than you, Jack Shannon, myself, or anyone else with a lick of sense is. Anyone who can look at the obvious and see it for what it is, knows that nuke plants are vulnerable. The NRC is gambling that no one who understands the dangers and weaknesses of NPPs would be so dastardly as to attack one. That gamble is a fool's bet now.
These plants MUST be shut down. It's just a matter of time before they are attacked. How many warnings will it take? All of them, I guess. Only a meltdown might shake their confidence. Even after Tuesday's tragedy, they remain as arrogant as ever.
I wonder if anyone at the NRC has bothered to send Mr. Robbins whatever documentation they do have on San Onofre's Nuclear (Waste) Generating Station's "survivability" against an airplane falling on it or being intentionally flown into it. I'm sure whatever they have, is hokey.
I am forwarding these messages to several people at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and California Public Utilities Commission (the addresses are in the "cc" portion of this email). At least none of them will be able to claim they weren't warned.
And warned.
And warned.
I am also sending this to the local media, including Phil Diehl (North County Times), Bruce Lieberman (San Diego Union-Tribune), and of course, Gary Robbins at the Orange County Register. Also to our governor, a few other media contacts, etc..
Thank you again,
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
Attachments: Two letters from Glen Mills, former nuclear industry worker (30 years)
At 12:16 AM 9/15/01 , Glen Mills wrote:
By the way, there has been at least one airplane that did crash near SONGS.
I believe it was over 20 years ago. Being a pilot I often fly down the coast
pass SONGS because it is one of the most beautiful and pleasant flights you
can do. glen r mills
----- Original Message -----
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
To: <grobbins@ocregister.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 1:41 PM
Subject: Where's your sense of prudence, Mr. Robbins?
At 12:01 AM 9/15/01 , Glen Mills wrote:
I am a pilot and have flown many times down the coast pass SONGS where I
worked for 21 years. It would be easy for any crazy person to ram the plant
with a airplane and you do not need a jet to cause major problems for public
health and safety. A single engine propeller plane you can find at any small
airport could do great damage. What about the case when the containment
equipment hatch is open? How about the spent fuel pool with its high density
racks with no containment to protect the public? I worked in the nuclear
industry for 30 years. Many of the things I saw made me sick. Fortunately I
have been retired for the last 6 years with more peace of mind. glen r
mills
----- Original Message -----
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
To: <grobbins@ocregister.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 1:41 PM
Subject: Where's your sense of prudence, Mr. Robbins?
> At 12:58 PM 9/12/01 , Gary Robbins of the Orange County Register wrote:
>
> Russell: If you have a legitimate document from NRC saying that SONGS is
> vulnerable to a collision from a jetliner, please e-mail it to me or fax
it
> to 714-796-3681.
> Gary Robbins
>
> >>>>> My response: >>>>>
>
> Very funny, Mr. Robbins. I'm laughing all the way to the morgue.
>
> If you have a legitimate document proving I'm wrong about the risk to
> SONGS, I'd sure like to see THAT. Where's your sense of prudence?
Where's
> your common sense, for that matter? And were your eyes closed all day
> yesterday?
>
> Of course I can't produce what the NRC won't give me and you know it (but
> rest assured, I'm trying to wriggle the truth out of them).
>
> That is not a legitimate way to dismiss my charges, Mr. Robbins. Whether
> or not the NRC will hand us a document does not prove or disprove my case,
> which is based on considering basic engineering principles such as force,
> heat, plant design, etc..
>
> The NRC's entire operation is based on lies, Mr. Robbins. I realize you
> are probably too young to personally remember their phrase "too cheap to
> meter" (actually, so am I, but it's well documented), and too naive about
> nuclear power to have researched the matter yourself. But the NRC's
> history of lying has never improved since that original big lie about
> nuclear power. The idea that planes could not wipe out a nuclear power
> plant is as fictitious as the idea that you earnestly care what I think.
>
> Why do you trust the NRC so much, Mr. Robbins? Unlike the NRC, I have
> never lied to you.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Russell Hoffman
> Carlsbad, CA
>
> Attached: Recent comments by Jack Shannon, on government honesty (to
"Mike"):
>
> ===================================================================
>
> "Mike":
>
> Of all of your statements I consider the following to be the most
egregious,
> "I hope you can understand that if what you say is true and they admitted
it,
> it could seriously jeopodize [sic] the ability of the Navy to perform its
> mission."
>
> I would love to have someone explain to me how it is that exploding the
myth
> that the KSO site is a safe place to work could possible interfere with
the
> Nuclear Navy's ability to perform it's military functions.
>
> The report I issued during November 1985, explained in considerable, and
> irrefutable, detail the safety issues that were present at KSO at that
time.
> This included, but was not limited to, the lack of a personnel asbestos
> record keeping program [a violation of federal law since 1972]. The
asbestos
> snowstorm swirling around KSO for years, which had been discussed with Don
> Martin, Ted Glasson, Don Hamilla, Barry Ericson and others for at least
three
> years prior to my inspection of October 23-24 1985. An asbestos abuse,
> allowed and/or ignored by many safety managers and government inspectors
> before me. This abuse eventually costs the taxpayers $100,000,000, and has
> caused virtually every single worker at KSO, for fifty years, to have been
> exposed to deadly levels of asbestos. Virtually everything else on my Web
> Site came about from discoveries made by a simple perusal of KAPL's own
> unclassified records.
>
> The exposure of the lack of an asbestos record keeping program caused the
> following to occur:
> Fifteen years of lying to Congress in general
> Lying to Specific Senators
> Lying to Specific members of the House of Representatives
> Lying to the GAO
> Lying to the EPA
> Lying to the DOE
> Lying to the DOE-IG
> Lying to the DOD
> Lying to the President of the United States
> Lying to the Governor of New York State
> Lying to several members of the New York State Assembly
> Lying to several members of the New York State Senate
> Lying to the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany New York
> Lying to the Pastor of My Church
> Lying to the New York Times
> Lying to the Washington Post
> Lying to the Albany Times Union
> Lying to the Schenectady Daily Gazette
> Lying to the The Metroland
>
> And Caused a Federal Judge to deny me my Constitutional right to a fair
> hearing.
>
> All of this with the knowledge, advice and consent of several past and
> present Four Star Admirals in charge of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion
Program.
>
> Four Star Admirals, I might add who are sworn to uphold and defend the
> Constitution of the United States as their first obligations as Officers
of
> the United States Military. The are not sworn to protect the bonuses of
Naval
> Reactor Employees, or keep secret illegal safety practices at the KSO.
>
> Illegal Safety Practices that include, but are not limited to:
> Running Nuclear Power Plants without Emergency Core Cooling Systems
or
> Containment Vessels
> Covering up radioactively contaminated landfills
> Covering up parking lots made of sludge material from a weapons
factory
> Terminating Sailors on Psychiatric Discharges for exposing personnel
> brutality [illegal in all military services.]
> Covering up radiation over exposures to individuals
> Firing health physicists for exposing radiation over exposures
> Covering up intentional radiation spillages into the Mohawk River
> Terminating employees for reasons of age.
>
> The list keeps getting longer and longer and more disgusting, and all of
the
> abuses are still in effect. Please don't tell me that ". . . I hope you
can
> find some comfort in knowing that the way things are done now is not that
way
> they were done then." Do you really believe that I live in a vacuum and
> don't know what is going on inside of KAPL today. Things are worse now
than
> they have ever been.
>
> The single "blessing[s]" is that the KAPL no longer runs a weapons factory
> [the corruption in cleaning up the existing one is bad enough], KAPL now
has
> only two Nuclear Reactors without Emergency Core Cooling Systems or
> Containment Vessels, rather than the four of years past. KAPL has less
> fissile material on site than previous years. Simply put KAPL has less of
and
> does less than it did between 1946 and 1983, therefore the potential for
> damage is less. The down side of course is that KAPL now has significantly
> less technical talent than was present between 1946 and 1983. The reason
is
> obvious, what young engineer would trust his life and career to an
> organization that has the worst personnel reputation in the United States.
>
> By the way don't ever accuse me of treason again, you shmuck. If you or
> anyone else wants to take me to court concerning anything on my web site
> please be my guest. I've been trying to get the DOE and the Naval Reactors
> program in court for years. The won't cooperate because they know I would
> smash them in a Court of law.
>
> John P. Shannon, Major United States Marine Corps Retired
>
>
> Nuclear Physicist/Nuclear Engineer
> Former Manager of Health and Safety at KAPL
>
> =============================================================
>
>
> *************************************************
> ** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
> ** Russell D. Hoffman, Owner and Chief Programmer
> ** Carlsbad CA
> ** Visit the world's most eclectic web site:
> ** http://www.animatedsoftware.com
> *************************************************
>
>
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First posted September 22nd, 2001.
Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman