Dear Reader,
Please paste your name into the following document and send it to:
"The President of the United States" <president@whitehouse.gov>
Thank you in advance,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
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January 15th, 2004
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to you to ask that NASA be completely defunded, UNLESS it becomes a non-nuclear, scientifically-credible, publicly-open, militarily-disconnected endeavor.
Otherwise, at the very least, stop the sham of pretending NASA is doing valuable scientific research about the foundations of life, when in fact it is little more than a cover operation for a large military/industrial/nuclear complex. Its so-called scientific missions, such as Cassini (launched in 1997) AND Spirit, (launched last summer), contained thousands of Curies of Plutonium 238 on board -- over 400,000 Curies in the case of Cassini, and nearly 5,000 Curies -- still an awful amount! -- in the case of each of the two MER spacecraft. Spirit (MER1) has already landed and found little worth the risk from such large amounts of Pu 238. MER2 has yet to land -- but only about 1 in 3 missions to Mars succeeds, so NASA may have risked NUKING EARTH during launch for nothing. There were approximately 7 billion people on earth who were put at risk during launch.
I've heard NASA's excuses for using plutonium. I know they claim it is adequately protected. But a careful examination of their own documentation shows this is not so! The containment system is INADEQUATE and to make it adequate would make the use of plutonium too expensive -- or even useless, so the only solution is to use solar power instead.
And why not? Even NASA's own projects are yielding newer and better solar panels for just such endeavors (see NASA's own publication, NASA Tech Briefs, current edition, if you don't believe me!).
I know that after Cassini and Spirit and other "exploratory missions" will come PROMETHEUS, which the NASA administrator carefully FAILS to mention is a NUCLEAR REACTOR-powered rocket. NASA wants to build many Prometheus rockets and send them all over the solar system.
I know that sooner or later one will fail, and will be flung towards Earth, which is essentially a large gravitational "vacuum" sweeping through space. Maybe 100,000 years from now. SO WHAT? We plan to still have PEOPLE here on this planet then, THAT'S WHAT! And besides, it's perfectly possible that a Prometheus rocket will fail the first time one is launched (the reactors are activated after launch).
We do not wish to live as though ARMAGEDDON is coming. We EXPECT the human race to survive and evolve over many millennia. But nuclear pollution MUST STOP in order for the human race to survive.
NO NUKES IN SPACE! NASA has proven time and again that they cannot always control the behemoths they launch. Spectacular failures are common. Yet when nuclear payloads are involved, NASA consistently miscalculates the odds against failure. They lie with statistics.
For example, it is well-known that when they present a "worst case scenario" to the public in, for example, an Environmental Impact Statement, that "worst case scenario" is actually nothing of the sort -- it is an AVERAGED case study, built from perhaps ONE real "worst case scenario" and THOUSANDS of lesser accidents. It is mathematical HOGWASH!
Lastly, Mr. President, as a citizen, I KNOW that our military is still very, very pro-nuclear and they expect all other citizens of the United States to like it that way. WELL, WE DON'T.
We don't want you to make NUCLEAR BUNKER BUSTERS. We want ALL NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS CLOSED FOREVER and that includes military propulsion systems! We want no more investments in nuclear armaments, including DEPLETED URANIUM BULLETS, SHELLS AND ARMOR.
This is not to say we do not see any benefit from radiological sources. Short-half-life medical compounds, x-rays, "hot" tracers when searching for oil -- perhaps all of these have some use to society. (Although in every case just mentioned, MORE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS do actually exist that will work in most situations; they are just more expensive to use because they have not been widely adopted yet.)
But we know that the pro-nuclear industry has a STRANGLEHOLD on America and on the world, and most of that strength comes from the U.S. Military being so incredibly pro-nuclear. They even nuke their own, as if it is a battle-scar to be worn proudly! But look at the lawsuits that have come from this process: Thousands of veterans who witnessed close-up the effects of nuclear blasts are now sick and dying with cancer, leukemia, heart disease, and their children have birth defects, if they are not spontaneously aborted.
Thousands of CIVILIANS suffer these effects each year because of the 1000+ nuclear bombs we have set off, with less than a 0.2% use in actual conflict (so far).
Thousands more suffer from our use of DEPLETED URANIUM in Kosovo, in Afghanistan, and twice in Iraq (so far, with the last use continuing to this day in daily and even hourly spurts).
I know that TERRORISTS hate us. I know this wanton use of nuclear weaponry, large and small, and in-between, is ONE OF THE REASONS they hate us. Sure, many of their reasons for hating us are UTTERLY IRRATIONAL. But not all their reasons are irrational, and our use of nukes is perhaps their best reason to hate us. Why PLAY INTO THEIR HANDS by giving them a LEGITIMATE grievance?
I, and many other citizens, know all this, and now, you know that we citizens know it, so please don't pretend that these issues are resolved. Many people do not want PROMETHEUS. We do not want Yucca Mountain either, the planned earthly depository for High Level Nuclear Waste, which has been POORLY STUDIED and is strongly opposed in Nevada by every citizen and elected official.
We want all Nuclear Reactors shut off IMMEDIATELY. We want the money proposed for NASA to be used instead for college educations for those who need it. In short -- WE TRUST OUR FUTURE CITIZENS more than we trust NASA, because NASA has proven itself to be a liar, a falsifier of data, a misinformation giver, and a blatant cover-up of a military agenda. Our children, on the other hand, are innocent until proven guilty. We wish to put our faith in them, instead. Shut NASA down entirely. Shut down the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy, both sham government oversight organizations, and shut down the nuclear power plants.
Scientists by the thousands have opposed these nuclear projects for many years. Average Joe and Jane Citizen largely opposes them, too. For the most part (not counting a few Yahoos!) only the military and a select group of private profiteers endorse them. So it's time for a change.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
Enclosed below is another relevant letter, with many additional links to important related information:
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January 14th, 2004
Today, President Bush promised billions of new dollars to build, among other things, nuclear space ships capable of going to Mars faster than non-nuclear missions. While claimed to be a scientific search for life, in fact, this new plan is little more than a cover for the U.S. military's continued nuclear space initiatives.
NASA currently uses, on average, tens of thousands of Curies each year, of the most deadly substance known to mankind -- Plutonium -- as a heat and power source for many of its so-called civilian missions. The U.S. military undoubtedly also uses plutonium for missions encircling the Earth.
There is no safe way to launch nuclear materials into space. Space debris and a wide variety of launch accidents make it impossible. But this doesn't stop NASA because they DENY THAT INCINERATED PLUTONIUM IS DANGEROUS!!! It could easily be 100 times more dangerous than they admit -- perhaps even 1000 times more dangerous (at the dose rates that result from an upper-atmosphere dispersion). They deny that the accident rate is as high as it really is, and they deny that the containment systems they design are as useless as they really are.
Oppose NASA's new funding initiative! The same amount of money, if it were used to increase science education in our schools, would result, over time, in a much greater increase in human knowledge.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Technologist
Former Editor, Stop Cassini newsletter
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
NO NUKES IN SPACE: (FLASH animation):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/mx/nasa/columbia/index.swf
or try:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/mx/nasa/columbia/index.html
STOP CASSINI web site:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/index.htm
Internet Glossary of Nuclear Terminology / "The Demon Hot Atom":
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/hotwords/index.htm
List of every nuclear power plant in America, with history, activist orgs, specs, etc.:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/nukelist.htm
List of ~300 books and videos about nuclear issues in my collection (donations welcome!):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/mybooks.htm
Learn about The Effects of Nuclear War here:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm
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