Path to Extinction

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

The dangers of the Three Mile accident were much worse than was revealed to the public, says the daughter in law of Adm. Rickover, the father of the US nuclear navy. She said that her father-in-law regretted having persuaded Pres. Carter to keep the full report secret - publication of the full report would have destroyed the civilian nuclear power industry, because it was so dangerous. Please request the release the full report from Pres. Carter: carterweb@emory.edu
Earth Island Journal, Winter 2001-2002, p4.
Dr. Stephen Wing spoke at the Univ. of Colorado about how the public and workers at nuclear plants should be represented on panels that set the
standards for exposure to nuclear radiation. Currently, the members of the
panels receive funding from the Dept of Energy, instead of the Dept. of
Health. US citizens and workers are allowed over twice the radiation
exposure of British workers and neighbors. Nuclear radiation threatens whole ecosystems including humans and animals.
Currently at Rocky Flats, next to Boulder, Kaiser Hill, the company in
charge of cleaning up Rocky Flats, will get multi-million dollar bonuses if
it cleans up on schedule or early. The DOE is faking the clean-up by
allowing lax, easy to meet standards, which allow much plutonium to remain in the soil. Similarly, at Oak Ridge, the clean-up contractor will make millions if they can dispose of radioactive metal by mixing it into
stainless steel, so that consumers will buy it in their cars, refrigerators
and washers. DOE also does not want a stringent cleanup standards that would then be demanded by citizens around Hanford, Savannah river Site etc. Also, note that the former head of K-H is now the DOE Under Secretary, and Jesse Roberson, the former DOE manager at Rocky Flats is now the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management at DOE.
Dr. Wilkinson found high levels of cancer in workers at Rocky Flats who were exposed to low levels of plutonium.
Nuclear power plants pose risk of disaster. US government studies show that over 100,000 people could die within one year from an accident or terrorist attack at a nuclear power plant. Renewable energy and increased efficiency could supply all the electricity that come from nuclear power plants. The Chernobyl accident contaminated 12,000 square miles, disabled 70,000 people, and killed 4000 rescue workers.
Z Magazine, Feb 2002, pp 22-25.

 

NUCLEAR WAR

Please protest Bush's plan to withdraw from the anti-ballistic missile
treaty ABM. This withdrawal could restart a nuclear arms race and destroy the widespread international agreement against the use of nuclear weapons. Rumsfeld's former job was to pimp the Star Wars boondoggle, the $200 billion collection of satellites, missiles and lasers that is incapable of ever working, but will provide lots of money to defense contractors. Please also ask Bush to quit opposing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Similarly, resuming of nuclear testing is a way to give money to defense contractors, but new tests would spark this nuclear proliferation.
   

STAR WARS EQUALS THEFT - 12/01

Source is Harper's Dec 2001, pgs. 41-51
THIS IS ONLY A TEST by JoAnn Wypijewski

This article explains how the star wars program to stop nuclear-armed missiles is a farce. It is really just an excuse to steal taxpayer money and give it to Boeing, Raytheon, TRW, and Lockheed Martin. It appears to be a pipeline built to funnel money to these large corporations. "All there is to Star Wars is a sewer pipe between the Treasury and the contractors, a very low-tech sewer pipe," said Pierre Sprey.

The tests are faked by having the incoming missile transponder broadcast its location, by knowing exactly where the missile is aimed at and exactly when it is launched.

Testing for Star Wars has been conducted over the Marshall Islands. The native Marshall Islanders are mistreated - just the way they were when nuclear tests were done on them (in the 1950's) to study the effects of nuclear fall out on humans. After the nuclear tests the natives had cancer, birth defects and miscarriages in great quantities. The local people do not have access to clean water, electricity, sewage treatment or much medical care. Recently the islanders have been combating cholera. There is a great deal of alcoholism, diabetes, tuberculosis, and suicides - and leprosy still exists.

The defense department wants to militarize space and Star Wars may contribute to an illusion of power. However, the things to worry about are low-tech terrorist assaults, accidental nuclear war due to launch on warning hair-trigger setup of US and Russian missiles. The pentagon lists an missile attack from Russia, China, or a rogue nuclear nation a low priority - not in the top 8.

Paul Loub quoted one fellow from Lockheed saying, "Let's get real. We all know that if anyone ever attacks America, the bomb is going to be delivered by a suitcase, a car or a truck or in a boat
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AVOID NUCLEAR WAR/STARWARS
Stop the nuclear missile defense/Starwars, the upgrade of military satelites and the development of first strike space lasers because these will restart the arms race. The gluttony of Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon,
and TRW for the 200 billion dollars for these projects is shameful. We need to prevent nuclear war by reducing the hair trigger alerts status of missiles and limiting nuclear weapons.
A local activist Naneki says she feels less secure with nuclear weapons than with money being spent on nutrition, education and health care. Naneki was on the Great Peace March as a young woman and went over to Nevada to the nuclear test site where she felt the blast of a nuclear test. She continues to go there to protest twice a year against the development of new threatening and destabilizing nuclear weapons.
Rumsfeld, the new DOD fellow, is really secretary for Lockheed, Boeing and Raytheon, not defense. He has been a cheerleader for the Star Wars boondoggle that makes these corporations lust with greed. They renamed it a missile defense system, but it keeps failing all its tests, even as they attempt to cheat on its tests.
The nuclear missile defense/ Star Wars proposal does not work despite Pentagon's efforts to rig the tests for it. It is a huge boondoggle offering tens of billions of dollars to corporations building it.This missile defense system would start a destabilizing arms race as other countries would put their missiles on a heightened alert status, plus they would try to develop newer and faster weapons and counter-weapons. This is the opposite of the needed change to take weapons off hair trigger alert. Also we need to reduce the number of nuclear weapons.
Two Catholic priests have been joined by others as they go to missile silos in northern Colorado where many of our nuclear missiles are on alert ready to be launched. They feel the missiles to be immoral. Russia came within a few minutes of launching its missiles when its radar misinterpreted a Norwegian research missile as an enemy missile. Russian nuclear technology and command and control are degrading and becoming less reliable. The US and Russia should take missiles off alert. We should decrease the number strategic nuclear weapons. www.dealert.org - www.space4peace.org - is a website working against the militarization of space.
The Department of Energy want to have weaker clean-up standards for plutonium in the soil at Rocky Flats nuclear site than anywhere else in the world. First they said 651 picocuries per gram of soil at Rocky Flats, but
10 at Livermore Lab and 34 at Hanford.
Colorado Daily, 2-28-00 Leroy Moore

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