Fwd: More News Updates  -- SONGS is vulnerable!  Save us!  Save us!

To: graydavis@governor.ca.gov,   "Barbara Boxer, Senator (CA, D)" <senator@boxer.senate.gov>
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Fwd: More News Updates  -- SONGS is vulnerable!  Save us!  Save us!
Cc: president@whitehouse.gov,  "Russell Wise, NRC" <rxw@nrc.gov>,  "Elmo Collins" <eec@nrc.gov>,   "Pat Gwynn" <tpg@nrc.gov>,  "Clanon, Paul" <pac@cpuc.ca.gov>,   "Ajello, Julian E." <JEA@cpuc.ca.gov>,   "Wong, Zee Z." <czw@cpuc.ca.gov>,   "Clark, Richard W." <rwc@cpuc.ca.gov>,   "NRC" <the.secretary@hq.doe.gov>,"Barbara Byron" <BByron@energy.state.ca.us>, Bob Aldrich <boba@energy.ca.gov>, "Steve Woods" <swoods1@dhs.ca.gov>, "Bob Kahn, Op-ED editor, NC TImes" <bkahn@nctimes.com>

URGENT

September 22nd, 2001

Dear Governor Davis,

A friend of mine sent the letter shown below to me.  I'm sending it to you because what it suggests the future portends scares the hell out of me.

Please shut the nukes down IMMEDIATELY and get the Marines out there to protect them!  The writer says, "it's still a sitting duck" referring of course to San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.  I should add that a few days ago my wife rode by it twice on the train and was not able to discern any substantial changes -- no trucks in front of the gates, no troops, nothing.  Now, I'm not saying there haven't been any changes -- another friend, who works there, assured me there have been "big time" changes since September 11th, 2001 -- but I am quite certain that the protection effort is utterly inadequate against airplanes (large OR small), or against a determined, well-armed, well-trained, suicidal foe on the ground, let alone a combined air-and-ground attack.

And we still have those pesky tsunamis to worry about.  The tsunami wall is only 35 feet tall (an easy rappel for anyone in shape, by the way) and tsunamis which are hundreds of feet in height have been recorded all around the Pacific Rim.  And, SONGS was supposed to reconsider their claims regarding resistance to earthquakes too.  Will that study be accelerated, now that we know SONG'S owners, Southern California Edison, lie to you and to the public, or will it be ignored or delayed?

What exactly are you waiting for, if not a catastrophe?  This is a disaster you could prevent.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA

Two items are included below:
1) A letter from a friend in "SoCal" (Southern California)
2) Four reasons military protection of nuclear power plants is not the answer

=========================================================
>>>>> A LETTER FROM A FRIEND IN "SOCAL" >>>>>
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 12:02:43 -0700
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: More News Updates

Dear Russ,

See todays LA TIMES ASAP !
page A-14

Ray Golden is in big trouble for lying about security to congress...

I hope someone can get the Marines out to SONGS soon !
This target has moved way up on the list...its still a sitting duck.
At least Diablo is harder to get to and penetrate, but still in grave
danger.
As west coast seems next likely target, as cells were and are probably
still here
and waiting for US attacks to rally their forces worldwide, then they
will strike Socal...

<<<< END OF LETTER FROM A FRIEND IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA <<<<<

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Four reasons military protection of nuclear power plants is not the answer:

1) It might not work, and if it doesn't, the devastation would last for millennia and the death toll could be three or more orders of magnitude worse than what we saw at the World Trade Center.  That means millions dead instead of thousands.  The suffering of those who do not die rapidly but are slowly poisoned by the radiation would be unspeakably horrific.  If you have nuclear power plants, your enemy doesn't need a nuclear bomb.

2) Using highly trained troops for nuclear power plant security takes those troops away from other defensive positions where the country could use them.  There are over 1000 nuclear hotspots in this country, including nuclear power plants (103), research reactors (~40), training reactors (several), closed reactors (~50), weapons manufacturing facilities (dozens) and nuclear waste dumps (lots and lots).  Hanford alone is about the size of a small state, and just has a fence around it -- very difficult to protect.  All nuclear sites are vulnerable to one degree or another, most of them are extremely vulnerable.

3) Having so much weaponry so close to the reactors is unsafe prima facie.  "Friendly fire" is an extremely serious risk in any firefight.  Also, there is no guarantee that those manning the guns will do what is expected of them.  Timothy McVeigh was a U.S. soldier before he became a terrorist in 1995.  So was the lunatic who stole a tank in San Diego in 1996, and drove it unobstructed for about 10 miles (he tried to jump the highway barrier and run over oncoming highway traffic, but got the tank stuck midway).  In 1997 an Air Force pilot on a training mission suddenly broke formation, dropped below radar, and flew his A-10 Warthog 800 miles (from Arizona to Colorado), where it ran out of fuel and crashed into the side of a mountain.  The Depleted Uranium bullets the Warthog "tank buster" aircraft normally carries could slice through a Dry Fuel Storage Cask like a knife through butter.  The plane was carrying four 500-pound bombs and magnesium flares (use d for decoys for heat-sinking missiles).  An attack on a nuclear power plant by a single A-10 Warthog would be devastating.

4) It's extremely expensive to protect the plants and the expense will not go away as time goes by.  We will need to protect the nuclear power plants from this day forward.  Thus, they are not and never will be economical to run (they never were before).  And if they aren't even economical, why in the world should we continue to risk the dangers they pose?

CLOSE THE NUKES NOW!  LET'S SWITCH TO RENEWABLE ENERGY TODAY!

The risks are significantly reduced as soon as the control rods are inserted and the dangers continue to diminish every day thereafter.  Every day these plants remain open, more nuclear waste piles up which is a security risk and an environmental hazard, as well as being hopelessly expensive to deal with.

-- Russell D. Hoffman, Concerned Citizen, Carlsbad, California, USA, Planet Earth

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Mail to: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
First posted September 22nd, 2001.

Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman