El Sid's Green Space

Page 2 Three Cents

THREE CENTS ON THE DOLLAR - AFTER A NUCLEAR POWER
ACCIDENT OR DISASTER - THAT'S ALL YOU'LL GET IF YOU ARE LUCKY

A fuming melt-down at the Indian Point Nuclear Plant (near NY City) could cause death over hundreds or even thousands of  miles.  Yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is satisfied with a limited ten mile evacuation zone.

They discovered a new law of physics.  When you have a nuclear catastrophe, the wind stops blowing poisons.
Updating estimates by the Federal Sandia Laboratory (NM), the damage caused could easily exceed a trillion dollars. It would render the New York City area poisoned for hundreds of thousands of years.

Why worry? An obscure Federal Law called The Price Anderson Act limits the liability of the utility for this damage to a only $10 billion dollars. That is a microscopic fraction of the total damage which could be inflicted.  YOU would be lucky to be reimbursed three cents on the
dollar, after the utility gets reimbursed for its damages.  YOUR paltry reimbursement will depend on remaining alive and healthy.

It will depend on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules that you are entitled to reimbursement.

There is no appeal if they declare you are unworthy. There is also a statute of limitations which is a much shorter period of time than the total time for cancers to appear.

When we vaporized the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs, there was widespread hope that the awesome force of the atom could be harnessed for the benefit of humankind. The nuclear establishment realized that the same factories that made enriched uranium for nuclear weapons could make fuel for nuclear power plants. Anxious to increase a profitable weapons empire and capture endless subsidies, the United States promoted civilian nuclear power. It was called "Atoms for Peace". But utilities knew that a single fuming meltdown could bankrupt them. They were afraid to build nuclear plants. The Price Anderson Act was enacted to guarantee that regardless of a trillion dollar disaster, harming millions, a nuclear ulility would not go bankrupt.

This law fixed it so that the public would suffer the full cost and health problems. Utilities were willing to build nukes only after Price Anderson was enacted. As for health consequences, victims will be told that any harm claimed was pure imagination. That's what the victims of the Three Mile Island accident were told. Some of those victims had classic radiation sickness symptons. Our government denied their harm. Can't threaten subsidies and an important bureaucratic empire!  2000 victims were denied their day in court by a biased judiciary. It could happen to YOU!   The public interest group "Three Mile Alert" reported the actual casualties which occurred.

When our original Constitution was ratified, each black slave was counted as 3/5 of a person, for purposes of representation in the legislature and for purposes of taxation. This is not unlike the rationale of The Price Anderson Act. It stealthily counts each person as having only one life to give to a utility.

The Price Anderson Act was declared unconstitutional. However, upon appeal, it was ruled constitutional by a higher right wing Supreme Court. The ruling was on the premise that we need nuclear power because it delivers unlimited energy. This was wildly incorrect, along with other false beliefs.

A question for an astute Constitutional lawyer. Can a Supreme Court ruling based on false premises be reversed? It wouldn't be easy because of the right wing Judges on the Court, but does that mean it shouldn't be done to protect basic rights?

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in the Soviet Union harmed people all around the globe.  Events as bad or worse than
Chernobyl can happen in the United States with different scenarios. The nuclear industry silenced this fact. The documentary movie
"Chernobyl Heart" showed ghastly deformities in children, stating that decades after the Soviet disaster only 20% of the children born in Belarus were healthy. Scattered poisons will be deadly for hundreds of thousands of years. Poisons from Chernobyl doused Europe and reached the United States. The accident contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union.

The nuclear industry is still afraid to operate nuclear plants without the protection of Price Anderson. Each time this law comes up for
re-authorization (as it periodically does) the industry threatens to shut down every plant if re-authorization falls through. They remain afraid of assuming full responsibility for the consequences of their actions. It shows that big guns in the industry do not really believe one word of their assurances about health and safety. Spineless Congress (heavily bribed by the industry) has always surrended to the threat of plant shutdowns.

PUBLIC INTEREST ACTIVISTS, CAN WE STIR CONGRESS TO ABOLISH THIS UNFAIR LAW?     IT WOULDN'T BE EASY BECAUSE OF THE STRENGTH OF THE NUCLEAR POWER LOBBY, BUT SHOULD COWARDICE BE ALLOWED TO PREVAIL?

This law, along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's extreme bias in favor of the nuclear power industry creates a culture of false security which ultimately endangers you and everyone else.

No other energy source requires the likes of Price Anderson. Since nuclear promoters insist that nuclear power is safe, let them prove it by abolishing this atrociously unfair law. Whether or not they agree, death of Price Anderson is overdue.

How do YOU feel about being worth only three cents on the dollar?
We must make nukes safe. Here's how to do it.
...Abolish human error
...Abolish wars and terrorism, because they both endanger nuclear plants.
...Bury nuclear plants deep underground as was once recommended by D. Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb. He wrote why
   a fuming melt-down could be more deadly than a hydrogen bomb. After he went on Nelson Rockefeller's payroll and collected fat fees
   to promote nuclear power, he stopped mentioning burial.
...Be able to predict and control earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis for hundreds of thousands of
   years. Thats how long the radioactive fission products kill and injure living beings. Many nuclear facilities are located near or right
   on top of earthquake faults, and some are near volcanoes. Flooding can endanger nuclear plants also.
...Ensure that hundreds of thousands of materials, systems and their parts are flawless.
...Abolish the use of drugs and alcohol by operators of nuclear plants, although usage of these occurs at facilities. About ten percent of
   humans consume drugs and alcohol.
...Increase the evacuation zone from the present ridiculously inadequate 10 miles to as long as necessary. 200 miles may not be
   enough. Poisons from the Chernobyl Soviet nuclear disaster circled the globe. Poisons from the Three Mile Island accident in
   Pennsylvania, U.S.A. went much further than 200 miles.
...Ensure that all operators are mentally healthy and have absolute integrity that reaches far beyond concern for their own selfish
   interests.
...Ensure that all operators are fully qualified, although many are far from that.
...Abolish the Price Anderson Act .  This federal law excuses nuclear plant operators from taking full responsibility for the harm they
   can invoke. Without Price Anderson, they would have to be much more careful.
...Increase responsibility for the management of nuclear wastes to a period of time that goes to at least 250,000 years. This should be
   a minimum requirement. Some wastes are deadly for up to 160 million years. Presently the industry is satisfied with management
   for only 10,000 years.
...Guarantee that all nuclear poisons will be isolated from the environment with a perfection of containment that is 99.999% perfect,
   for at least 250,000 years.  That's how deadly and long lasting these poisons are. In other words, the lack of containment must
   not exceed .001%, given the known toxicity of these poisons.
...Guarantee that our social institutions will be fully functioning for 250,000 years.
...Retrieve and re-isolate all the nuclear waste which has already leaked into the environment. In the first thirty years of the nuclear
   age, 2 to 3% of our nuclear waste leaked.  A 2 to 3% containment failure is much worse than the really required .001% containment
   failure.

IT'S SIMPLE. JUST DO ALL THIS AND WE WILL ALL BE O.K.
Albert Einstein once asked, "Am I crazy or is everyone else crazy?"

To play videos, copy and paste in browser

Video - Energy Matters - part 1  - El Sid on this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vgNYdri114

Video - Energy Matters - part 2 - El Sid on this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2wiOo2Swc0

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HOW MUCH IS A $MILLION? HOW MUCH IS A $BILLION? HOW MUCH IS A $TRILLION?
THESE AMOUNTS ARE A LITTLE HARD TO COMPREHEND WITHOUT COMPARISONS.
COMPARISONS
SAY 10 DOLLARS IS EQUIVALENT TO 32 SECONDS.
THEN 1 MILLION DOLLARS IS EQUIVALENT TO 12 DAYS,
THEN ONE BILLION DOLLARS IS EQUIVALENT TO 34 YEARS,
THEN 10 BILLION DOLLARS IS EQUIVALENT TO 340 YEARS.
AND ONE TRILLION DOLLARS IS EQUIVALENT TO 34,000 YEARS.

A FUMING MELT-DOWN AT THE INDIAN POINT NUKE CAN CAUSE A TRILLION DOLLARS DAMAGE.
This is updating the possible damage reported by the Federal Sandia laboratory in 1982.  They reported
potential damage of $314 billion.  This was in 1982 dollars, and they underestimated several factors.
Price Anderson limits liability to about $10 billion (or 340 years). Compare 340 years liabiliy to
34,000 years of damage. That comes to liability of one cent on the dollar with updating the Sandia Lab estimate.
Sticking to the 1982 dollar low-ball estimate gives you three cents on the dollar.  We are such good sports!
Price Anderson leaves you holding the bag and carrying the coffin, assuming you are outside the coffin.

To play videos, copy and paste in browser

Video (1) made by a Facebook friend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmVkagHAMME

Video (2) made by a Facebook friend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqkXY4mk7B4

Nukes set to music – Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEGzPb09y2U

PROGRESSIVE RESOURCES
DVDs, Posters, Buttons, Bumperstickers, Pins, Books
Postcards, T-shirts from Donnelly/Colt
http://www.donnellycolt.com

ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES
Natural Resources Defense Council - http://www.nrdc.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists - http://www.ucsusa.org/
Nuclear Information and Resource Service - http://www.nirs.org/
Sierra Club - http://www.Sierra Club.org/
Beyond Nuclear - http://www.beyondnuclear.org/
Wiser Earth - http://www.wiserearth.org/
Riverkeeper - http://www.riverkeeper.org/
Unplug Salem - http://www.unplugsalem.org/
Solar Discounts from group purchashing - http://www.1bog.org/
Environmental Defense Fund - http://www.fightglobalwarming.org/
League of Conservation Voters - www.lcv.org

Health Data from Dr. Janette Sherman - http://www.janettesherman.com
Includes comprehensive book on total effects of the Chernobyl disaster

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Nukes set to music – Video