Subject: Re: The Rogue Army of the Pacific
Ace: Send this to any one you wish. I'm tired of howling at the moon.
The exemption that the Navy claims is actually no exemption at all. The exemption the Navy claims comes from Executive Order 12344, written by none other than Ronald Reagan [the hero of the right wing nut cakes].
The Executive Order, 12344 (XO for short) is nothing more than a document written to show where the Naval Reactor program fits into the DOE organizational chart, and who should head the program [Namely a Navy Admiral]. Not a single word mentions exemption of any kind. The Navy ( specifically the Naval Reactor organization - NR) took the organizational exemption and inserted a reference to XO 12344, to all DOE orders that apply to all other DOE organizations, and exempted NR from having to comply with those orders.
I doubt that a single member of the House or the Senate has ever read a DOE order or XO 12344 for that matter. The net effect is to guarantee that NR has no oversight at all. The NR Program needed these exemptions since even a cursory investigation would have forced a shutdown of the entire program. NR runs land based power plants [2 at the last count] without the benefit of containment vessels, emergency core cooling systems, pressure suppression systems, or separate operating rooms for the reactor operators [the operators die at the same moment that the plants have a loss of coolant accident - so who is left to explain what went wrong].
All Nuclear Powered Surface Ships and Submarines enter and leave all American and Foreign Ports under Nuclear Power Generated steam [i.e. the Nuclear Reactors are operating].
All Nuclear Powered Surface Ships and Submarines are refueled [old core taken out - new core put in] within a baseball throw of most cities located in or near a shipyard, Cities such as Norfolk Virginia, Pearl Harbor, etc..
With the lack of even rudimentary safety measures the Nuclear Navy is run under no oversight, and no legal protection for those Nuclear Power experts who work for Naval Reactors. No one will dare raise a voice [except the undersigned], and NR keeps on rolling along just like old man river.
The King has no clothes, in this case the King[s] are the President, the Senate, the House, all Navy Officers, All Marine Corps Officers, all Army Officers, all Coast Guard Officers, the DOE, the NRC, the National Resource Defense Council, River keepers, all Judges within the Northern District of the Second Circuit Court, basically everyone in Washington with any power knows about the outrageous behavior of the Nuclear Navy. I think it's fair to say that we live in a land of cowards and blind men. I keep getting notices that one or more of the sirens at Indian Point have been found to be not working, or a guard has fallen asleep, etc. ad nauseam. Who cares when the Navy is running around the Oceans with hundreds of the most unsafe Nuclear Power Plants in the World and no one raises a bleep? A Navy that refuels ships within spitting distance of grade schools, high schools City Halls, etc..
No one in the industry can contradict me because all Nuclear Engineers/Nuclear Physicists [even those who work for NR] are familiar with the equations for a power excursion. Ignoring the fact does not make the fact disappear.
A FACT IS A FACT!!!! WAKE UP AMERICA.
Major John P. Shannon Nuclear Physicist/Nuclear Engineer Retired
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Author, The Code Killers:
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