March 28th, 2004

Dear Readers,

"Three Mile Island" was 25 years ago.  What have we learned?

Davis Besse was/is practically ignored by the media, but it would have been between ten thousand and a million times worse than TMI actually was, had it not been discovered in time (it was, but entirely by accident when a worker leaned against a control rod housing and it bent over).

Al Queda and other terrorists have threatened to attack our nuclear power plants, but there are other good reasons, having nothing to do with terrorism, to reject this technology now, BEFORE there is a "real" meltdown.  Closing our nukes is NOT giving in to terrorism.  It's simply giving in to reason.

There are many studies and reports from Three Mile Island, which are suppressed by the mass media, but which indicate there were massive die-offs of local birds and other animals in the area around the plant after the incident, as well as after large "venting" operations, which continue to this day.  There are also studies indicating the incidence rates of cancers, leukemias, birth defects, and heart disease are higher around the plant -- that the "harmless levels" of radiation which the utility admits to having released were A) not harmless, and B) much larger than admitted.

CNN, while interviewing a woman who lives within sight of the plant, who has a son with Down's Syndrome and who wonders if it was caused by the accident, simultaneously is telling us that, although no new nuclear power plants have been ordered since TMI, nevertheless, new nukes are expected to be ordered in the next five years.

This might be true, but if so, it won't be because people are investing in them.  It will be because the plants are being forced down our throats, paid for and permitted through massive tax breaks, blatant insurance fraud (the "Price-Anderson Act" is nothing but a big scam against the taxpayers), and secret military/industrial handshake deals at the highest levels of government, on down to the lowest levels of public "servants", who actually do the dirty work of aggravating activists and planting newspaper stories that purport to tell the "truth" about nuclear power as a "clean" energy source.

There is nothing clean about nuclear power.  The "waste problem" it creates will NOT be solved by Yucca Mountain, as ANY qualified and honest scientist can tell you.  Thousands of the world's top scientists oppose nuclear power.  You should, too!  (In fact, you probably do.  I believe that the VAST MAJORITY of Americans oppose nuclear power, despite all the best efforts of government and industry to make us like it.)

When listening to a spokesperson for your local plant, always bear in mind that they are under no obligation to tell the truth to reporters or activists, or even to judges and juries!  No one is allowed to investigate nuclear issues except the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and they have stated in writing, to this author (in a letter dated March 30th, 2002), that they will NOT investigate the veracity of statements made by public affairs officers of NRC licensees.  That gives those public affairs officers a license to lie.

Because many pro-nukers believe (erroneously) that nuclear power has a vital role in "National Security" issues, industry spokespeople feel further permitted to lie to the public.  Nuclear power has destroyed our democracy, being an industry founded on lies, lies, and more lies -- the very antithesis of basic democratic principles.

The only role nuclear power has in National Security is that it gives our enemies juicy targets to attack.  Maybe blowing up several trains at once in Madrid, or flying several large jets into buildings at nearly the same time is even easier than attacking a spent fuel pool, dry storage cask, or operating nuclear power plant, but not THAT MUCH easier!  In return for their efforts, the terrorists will be "rewarded" for an attack on our power plants with massive economic disruption AND a death toll that could easily be 1000 times worse than Madrid OR even than own own 9-11!

That is STAGGERING BUT TRUE.  An attack on a nuclear power plant could be 1000 times worse than 9-11.  Winds blowing strongly from the plant to a major city nearby would be enough to cause many more deaths than 9-11 -- perhaps orders of magnitude more.

Actual government figures alone for any type of meltdown, let alone a true "worst case scenario" are terrifying (and available for EACH U.S. reactor at the first web site listed below).  But there is every reason to believe those figures are a gross under-representation of what could really happen.

Chernobyl was only a PARTIAL meltdown -- reports are that "only" about 4% of the fuel melted or deformed, not nearly as bad as it could have been (or could still be; the containment is crumbling and the fuel inside is not being properly monitored).  Perhaps 10,000 to 100,000 people died as a direct result of breathing Chernobyl's radioactive plume.  The nuclear industry claims that less than 30 people died from Chernobyl, all of them workers who bravely went into the plant, but that is a lie.  It was perhaps a thousand times that many people, or perhaps even more.

Imagine being able to lie like that -- by three orders of magnitude -- and get away with it!

Three Mile Island wasn't a "meltdown" at all.  Nuclear fuel was deformed from the heat, but it was "a half hour from meltdown", despite the wording sometimes used on CNN and other media during this anniversary.  No one will ever know within several orders of magnitude how much radiation was actually released.

We are very lucky that Davis Besse didn't burst and become a full-scale meltdown.   It would have been worse than Chernobyl, and far worse than Three Mile Island.

The industry talks about all they've learned, but all they've really learned is how to fool the public and the media into thinking things are safe.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA

To learn more about this dangerous energy source, please visit some of my web sites and/or subscribe to my newsletter.  I've spent decades gathering documentation from hundreds of sources, and in the interest of public education, I've gathered highlights and lowlights from the past half century of disinformation campaigns by the media, government, and nuclear industry.

Internet Glossary of Nuclear Terminology (aka "The Demon Hot Atom"):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/hotwords/index.htm

Internet Glossary of Nuclear Power Plants with links to activists and individual plant histories:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/nukelist.htm

Shut San Onofre (my local nuclear waste generating facility):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/onofre/index.htm

List of hundreds of books about nuclear technology (pro- and con):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/mybooks.htm

Most recent posting: Learn how the nuclear industry eats its own young:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/onofre/2004/NukeWorkers.htm

Learn about The Effects of Nuclear War here:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm

Additional material also by this author (for reference):

Glossary of Pumps (largest collection anywhere -- 75 pumps animated and explained (including types used exclusively in Nuclear Power Plants)):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/elearning/All%20About%20Pumps/glossary/aap_glossary.html

Glossary of Heart Terminology (over 150 words and phrases defined -- heart problems kill more Americans than any other disease and are a known result of radiation poisoning):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/elearning/Engine%20of%20Life/glossary/eol_glossary.html

Co-Author, Glossary of Statistical Terminology (without a basic statistical understanding, nukes can easily be made to look good to the lay person, because it's so easy to lie with statistics):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/elearning/Statistics%20Explained/glossary/se_glossary.html

(Note: Activists and reporters can use the password phrase "NO NUKES!" in our online software to view the entire products these glossaries are from, and may ask for a complimentary CD-ROM with all three programs on it (All About Pumps, Statistics Explained, and The Heart: The Engine of Life.)

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