April 14, 1979

COVER:

Editorial:
River
Valley
Syndrome
Hot
The
Uranium
Smart The
Missile:
TheCruise-SALT-FreeandDeadly

The Nation ~imd#Mi.

9

Martyrs:

Robert 6. Aldridge

LETTERS

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"J

387

392 Apartheid rrib

Karen Roth v t yer
393 Nuclear
Rush in Black Hills, S.D. B ~ CJ PO ~ I ~ M
396
Street
Irresponsible
Fleet
Roqrr M. Willinnls
398 Natwn Essay:
Two Cheers
State
the
for
Philip C3wn

J ) ~

386

EDITORIALS

387 The Unacceptable Risk

388 After SALT I1
389 Taking the First

ARTICLES

390 South Africa's P.R. Man:

Muldergate on Madison Avenue

EDITORIALS.
TheUnacceptable'
Risk

breadth of the nuclear fuel cycle, from the miningof

uraniumoretothecontainmentanddisposal
of nuclear wastesto the decontaminationof nuclear power
plantsandotherrelatedradioactivefacilities.
Wext, it should have been clear thatone self-serving
segment of our society was pushing the rest
of us into
wo related points deserve to be made in the
the arms of a technology that could not tolerate,'nor
contain, a major accident. And major accidents, in
radioactive aftermath of the nuclear power
this world of human error, faulty products, war, revplant accident on Three Mile Island in the
olution, terrorism, earthquake and
flood, are bound to
Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, which,
happen, especially when we continue to increase the
for some perverse reason, the media seem loath to
probability that a major nuclear accident will occur
identify as the capital of Pennsylvania.
One is the fact that since the mid-l950s, it has been by increasing the number of nuclear power plants in
in
clear to many unbiased, independent and knowledge- our society and, with them, the consequent increase
radioactive shipments, storage facilities and the like.
able people in this country, among them Nobel Lau-,
Because the consequencesof a major nuclear power
reates Linus Pauling and Hannes
AlfvBn, and Dr.
accident would be so devastating and disruptive, in
John Gofman, physician and nuclear scientist,that it
everysense,thechampions
of nuclearpowerand
was folly to pursue,orrelyupon,nuclear
fission
their sycophants have attempted to deal
~ i t their
h
dicon'power to produceelectricityforwidespread
lemma by maintaining that the inevitable will'never
sumption. Thepecond is that the energy problems
we
facetoday can in largemeasure be blamedupon our'
happen. As I write this, it still hasn't, but the accident
multibillion-dollar pursuit and development
of nuat Three Mile Island, the astounding fire
in 1975 that
d e a r power.
crippled the emergency safety systems at the Browns
.
In the first instance, we quickly learned that we
Ferrynuclearplant
in Alabamaandthepartial
were dealing witha bewildering array of radioactive
meltdown of the nuclear fuel core in 1966 at the En.rico Fermi plant near Detroit, among others, should
problems which ran through the entire length and

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be indication enough to anyone with common sense,

staggering contention that a near miss is as good as a
mile.
and some shred of independence from the economic
In this,thesedefenders
of thenuclearfaith
establishment, that we have been flirting with nuhave been joined by the media 'and politicians who
clear catastrophe.
profess to be deeply troubled and concerned, but
who
Instead of pursuing all the logical options that have
been available to us for years,' among them conserva- conclude nevertheless that the nuclear fission power
option is still a viable and rational answbr to at least
tion,energyefficiency,
solar*power. windpower.
some of our energy needs.
geothermal power, oceanic heat, the use of coal, the
for thepast
,This is thesamechorusthathas
tides, grain and wood alcohol. wood itself, garbage.
twenty-five years been trying to lull our fears, and
lumber and agricultural wastes, algae and. the proclead us into a catastrophic radioactive corner, even
ess of photosynthesis, most of which we have largely
though. if we continue as we have, the shoe will surely
ignored in spite of the fact that their development
fall. Who then, .will pick it up? MCKINLEYOLSON
would have been a boon to the economy in terms Of
new jobs and industrial growth. we have allowed oCr
FederalGovernment-includingtheCongressand
the courts, and a consortium of pqwerful public utilitie? and giant private corporations, to squander precious years,and billions of dollars in the pursuit of a
verlooked in the growing brouhaha concerntechnology that: at best,w i l l lay a 100,000-year curse
i n g SALT I1 is the long-awaited comprehenit) the form of plutonium waste upon this earth.
sive test ban treaty, whichis scheduled to be
Also, it means that those places, such as Chicago,
takenupaftertheSenatedisposes
of the
that are now harnessed to nuclear power, have been
arms limitationtreaty.Theundergroundtestban
tied to a n economic albatross, for we can be fairly
treaty would be open to all nations for signature, and
sure that a major nuclear power plant accident anyits goals are more 'universal. It would prevent the
y h e r e in thiscountry will result in damages so
emergence of new nuclear powers, and discourage
ghastly as to arouse a clamor for the shutdownof nucurrent competition for more lethal nuclear devices.
clear plants everywhere, whlch, in turn, if weconSALT I1 has been underway for six years: the talks
tinuetorely upon nuclearpower, would relegate a
on thetestbantreatyhavelastedtwodecades,
prb'number of our regions and cities to the potential stalonged bath by Soviet intransigence andby the resisttus of economic disaster areas.
ance of theAmericanrightwing.(See',Rdbert
There is a last lesson here: The nuclear powerconAldlidge, "Diana Moon's Deadly Dust." T/w Nrrtiou,
troversy,likethecontroversyoverthe
war in VietFeb.10.)
nam, tehches usthat the Federal Government and our Nonetheless,thetestban
is popularamong-the
Federal employees must be constantly watched, and
American people. In an April 1977 Harris Poll. 75
prodded,ho insure that they serve the public interest percentfavored it. TheUnitedNationshas
consis- ,
rather than the interests of, power, greed, ignorairce
tently supported it. Moreover, the nonnuclear states
andprivilege.
,
have demanded the treaty as an act of good faith by
Once again,'authorities are attempting
to minimize
the United States and the Soviet Union,who pledged
the dangers and awemme implications
of their acin the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to end
tions. AS, I write this, we are being told that thelevels
their own arms race if other nations would refrain
of' rad'iation emanating from the Three Mile Island
from developing nuclear weapons. Without the test
Nuclear Pou7er Station are not alarming, even though
ban, probably forty nationscould develop nuclear cait is an acknowledged fact that radiation,
at any level,
pabilitieswithintwelveyears.Suchproliferation
no,matter how low, can cause genetic mutations; and, would virtually mandate the use of nuclear weapons
even though we know that ionizing radiation is cumu- somewhere, sometime.
lative, and concentrated, in those who have been di.
Opposition within the United States hasbeen led by
rectly exposed to it, and, as it moves up through the
the Joint Chiefs of Staff and by the directors of the
human food chain causes cancer, leukemia and other
weapons laboratories. They v4er.e so successful that,
cell-mutated diseases.
after theassassination of President Kennedy, negotiaWe are also being told that the situation at'Three
tions were virtually suspended until1971, when SenMile Island is stable, whatever that means, and that
atorsEdmund
Muskie . and
Edward
Kennedy
there is no real danger thatwe will haveto face up to
succeeded in reviving Senate interest. Paul Warnke,
the terrifying implications of a fuel core meltdown.
as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament
'And, if our brush with disaster
does not turn outto be
Agency in the Carter Administration, made progress
totallyhorrific,wewillbeaskedtoswallowtheir
toward conclusion of the treaty, aided by major Soviet
t
concessions including agreement on the installation
of automaticse,ismicstationsforverificationpurMcKinley Olson i s the author of Unacceptable Risk
poses in both nations, and permission for onsite in(Bantam Books),about the nucle,aryower controversy.
spection to detect small explosions.
In 1974 The Nationdevoted a n issue of the magazine t o ,
The opposition, which vociferously demanded onMr. Olson's article, "The Hot River Valley," about the
site inspection of low-yield tests, was not'sileliced.'
nuclear fission power plants on the Susqu.ehanna.

After SALT I1

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