[Peace-discuss] nuclear news

[Ricky Baldwin]

Nuclear News We can Use


   The Indian Point nuclear power plant, on the shores of the Hudson River 
only 35 miles north of New York City, currently holds 1589 fuel assemblies 
in its spent fuel pool (compared to 386 fuel assemblies in the cores of its 
operating reactors).  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1982 estimated 
that a core meltdown at Indian Point could cause 46,000 fatalities and 
141,000 injuries.

   A spent fuel pool typically holds 5 to 10 times as much radioactivity as 
the reactor core, and a zirconium fire would likely release more 
radioactivity than a core meltdown and would probably be easier for a 
disciplined group of suicidal terrorists to initiate.  Draining the pool is 
all it takes.

   Water could drain from a spent fuel pool in several ways: leakage, 
evaporation, siphoning, pumping, earthquake, reactor failure, accidental or 
intentional drop of a fuel transport cask, explosion inside or outside the 
pool building, or airplane impact.  Unlike reactor cores, the spent fuel 
pools are not covered by a concrete containment dome; they are covered only 
by a metal building.



   U.S. regulatory officials have consistently failed to acknowledge the 
dangers posed by nuclear materials as tools for terrorists.  For example, on 
September 12, 2001--one day after the World Trade Center atrocities--the 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that citizen concerns about 
plutonium fuel processing at Savannah River (in Aiken, S.C.) were not valid 
because the complaining citizens (Georgians Against Nuclear Energy) had 
failed to establish that ³terrorist acts...fall within the realm of 
Œreasonably foreseeable² events.² [NY Times Mar.25,2002, pg.A11.]

   Terrorism aside, Indian Point is the only one out of 103 reactors to 
receive a ³red² finding by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  As of 
November 29, 2001 four of seven control room crews failed their license 
exams.  There is no evacuation plan in place for the communities within the 
50-mile radius of the plant that would be affected by a meltdown (although 
there is an outdated route for a 10-mile radius).  Eight percent of the 
entire U.S. population resides within this region, including all of New York 
City, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Bergen Counties and most of Fairfield 
County.

   The Yucca Mountain repository for nuclear waste is no help.  Yucca 
Mountain will need study for another 10 years, and when it does open, with 
so many tons of nuclear waist casks traveling on rails and trucks from over 
100 points all around the country to poor Nevada, it will provide so many 
opportunities for accidents and mischief that  the Indian Point reactor will 
look like a blessing!  No.  Yucca mountain is no help.  Yucca mountain is 
being prepared to become a nuclear wasteland, shamefully ignoring the veto 
of the state of Nevada, so that the energy corporations who gave us Enron 
will embark on the building of a new generation of nuclear energy reactors.

   After 60 years of experience with nuclear power and nuclear weapons, it 
now seems clear that humans are unable to devise safety controls that work.

Sources for the above information: Rachel¹s Environment and Health News #749 
   and   Citizens Environmental Coalition Newsletter Summer 2002

   Let us use this information.

   The continuation of nuclear energy production, and the mortal dangers 
associated with it, is completely dependent on our tax money.  We the people 
can stop it.  It is the most subsidized of all industries.  Right now we are 
in the position of paying for our own endangerment.  Just because we have 
permitted ourselves to be placed in this position is no reason to go on 
closing our eyes and shutting down our minds to what is obvious.  For life¹s 
sake and for sanity¹s sake we need ZERO TOLERANCE FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY;  zero 
tolerance for nukes in war, zero tolerance for nukes under the earth and in 
the sweet waters of our rivers and Great Lakes; zero tolerance for nukes in 
the heavens.

   Let us use the gift of our constitution and our citizenship to bring our 
political representatives to sanity and responsibility.  Let us not abandon 
our representatives in Congress and the Senate to the lobbyists of the 
corporations.  Let us not abandon our President  Bush and his Vice-President 
Chenney to their shameless, greedy and deluded corporate pals. The mentality 
of narrow greed that created an ENRON which played fast and loose with truth 
and reality for the gain of some of its leaders and the evaporation of the 
livelihood and pensions of its employees, is not good company nor good 
counsel for the leaders of our country.  You, and I, your difficult 
neighbor, my cranky friend, your soft-spoken cousin, my children and 
grandchildren, with all our strengths and our limitations are the necessary 
company for our representatives and our leaders.   We must speak our minds.  
Common sense is not common in our government.  Can democracy work when the 
people¹s representatives are hostages to lobbyists¹ money contributions?  
Can democracy work when our leaders are hostages to corporate greed?  Can 
democracy work when We the People care more about life-style than life?

   The message I want us to send:
**  Fortify all nuclear waste pools immediately just like the cores of 
nuclear energy plants.
**  Make all energy efficiencies irresistible: subsidize them for the 
consumer.
**  Bring on the renewable energies that are ready and lets embark on the 
transition of the century as if our lives and the lives of future 
generations depend on it.They do!
**  Close down, with all deliberate speed, every single nuclear energy 
reactor.

   This work is not lonely work.  Let us enjoy our democratic rights: what 
about a pre-work breakfast club where we meet with our friends and make new 
friends, we talk and plan and write our card of the week?  What about a 
lunch club in the library where we do the same?  Talk to one friend or 
family member about this.  Come up with a modest, doable, consistent 
strategy for getting the message out to friends, family members, neighbors.  
Find a way to meet with a few people regularly on this issue.  Focus on the 
nuclear threat nearest you.  You¹ll be glad you did.

                               Angeliki V. Keil


--
C. Keil
22 Wells Hill Rd.   Lakeville, Conn. 06039
Phone: 860-435-8120
Info about MUSE, Inc. see http://www.musekids.org
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