[NukeNet] The next Chernobyl will be federally-approved

[The Roy Process]

Commentary:
If you want to know why things happen...or not happen, they
say, "follow the money". In the case of nuclear power, the joke
is on them! No one is immune. All we can do now, is stop it
from getting worse. But big money and political power is made
through mischief, instead of the reverse. It's an ancient story!

Regards,
Dennis F. Nester
Phoenix, AZ
---------------------
Next Chernobyl will be federally approved
April 25th, 2007

Dear Readers,
Tomorrow is the 21st anniversary of the start of a silent 
slaughter.  Chernobyl kills to this day, and will continue to do so 
halfway to forever.

The nuclear industry denies every latent cancer death, every 
leukemia, every heart ailment, every tumor of any sort.  Even the 
unhappy souls who have survived, but whose lives have been ruined by 
Chernobyl, are denied the dignity of a valid reason for their 
depression.  They are told it's all in their head.

Tomorrow may ALSO be the start of ANOTHER Chernobyl -- ANOTHER round 
of silent slaughter.

The disaster will creep up on us, amidst adamant official government 
denials from every country with a reactor of their own, whose 
reputation they will want to protect.

It will creep up on us amidst weak media coverage by poorly-educated 
reporters, who will believe that their main function will be to 
prevent panic.  And to some extent, they'll be right about 
that.  Their time to say the right things, things that might have 
stopped the horror, will have past.

Just like last time.

Of course, next time, camera-phones will probably capture some of the 
tragedy as it unfolds.  But even camera-phones and the Internet will 
not be able to show the horror, because of the odorless, colorless, 
tasteless nature of nuclear poisons, and because of the years-later 
pain and suffering of cancer, leukemia, and many of the other health 
effects, and because of the fierce heat which accompanies virtually 
ALL nuclear disasters and wafts the poisons high into the air, 
landing dozens or hundreds (or thousands) of miles away, making 
positive identification of the victims impossible.

Such a disaster has become EVEN more likely, at least in America, 
because yesterday, in a brazen abdication of their responsibilities, 
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that new nuclear reactors 
will NOT have to be designed to withstand airplane strikes from "big 
airplanes" (Matthew Wald, New York Times).

New reactors will NOT be required to be designed with true (but 
unaffordable and/or impossible) robustness.  Instead, the nuclear 
industry will be allowed to come up with things like emergency 
dilution plans, so that any radiation released in an accident can be 
quickly diluted below the threshold for regulatory concern.  To make 
this easier to accomplish, the regulatory limits will be temporarily 
raised after ANY accident, in order to accommodate the additional 
release of radioactive materials.

If emergency dilution is not possible, then spreading the total 
radioactive release out over time will suffice.  According to the 
NRC's philosophy, a month-long disaster, for example, is preferable 
to a two-day disaster, even if the total radioactive release and 
eventual health effects are expected to be virtually identical.  The 
difference of about 28 days (in this example) can get you an operating license.

But if nuke engineers cannot prove (to the satisfaction of the NRC) 
that they can stretch the ensuing accident out over a couple of weeks 
or months, then an UTTERLY UNWORKABLE plan of evacuation for the 
people living 5 to 10 miles around the plant will still suffice!

And if THAT's not possible?  Believe me, THAT's possible!

There are reactors which now have millions of people within 30 miles 
of them, and tens of millions of people living within 50 miles.  The 
fallout from a reactor accident could force the permanent evacuation 
of major cities dozens or even HUNDREDS of miles downwind of the 
plant.  But as long as the 5 or, at most, 10-mile radius is 
considered rural, or has some exit routes, that's good enough for the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to give out a licence to operate, or to 
continue to operate, a reactor.

These alternative plans are called "mitigation plans" but really they 
are ALL just closing the barn door after the horses have gotten 
out.  And these are the four horses of the Apocalypse we're talking 
about!  Mean ponies.  You don't want THEM getting out!  But the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with the one word "practicable" as in 
"to the extent practicable" has eliminated the need for new nuclear 
reactors to be designed safely.  Period.

Any fool in a large airplane can destroy a nuclear reactor, and the 
plant will have been designed LEGALLY as if the threat did not 
exist!  New nuclear plants will also be vulnerable to "inside jobs," 
missile attacks, ground-based attacks, and a thousand other risks. 
(Gee, they're going to be just like the CURRENT CROP of reactors!)

Yesterday's vote by the NRC was characterized -- by the NRC staff -- 
as an additional step towards plant security in the wake of 
9-11.  Actually, it is just the opposite:  It gives plant designers 
specific permission to ignore the realities of the world, giving them 
even more opportunities than before to commit genocide with 
federally-mandated immunity.

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

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** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
** Russell "Ace" Hoffman, Owner & Chief Programmer
** P.O. Box 1936, Carlsbad CA 92018-1936
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