Saturday, April 12, 2008

Re: Fw: ALERT !! Question/statement on Nuclear Proliferation for Presidential campaign

April 12th, 2008

Dear Readers,

The Democratic Party Caucus is meeting tomorrow, April 13th, 2008. CREED, a long-established California-based environmental organization, has requested suggestions for questions regarding proliferation of both nuclear weapons AND nuclear power plants. Hopefully, the questions will be later asked of the various candidates of BOTH parties. Below are my suggestions, and contact information so you can send your questions in, too.

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman, Carlsbad, California USA


Ace's Suggested questions for candidates:

"Given the overwhelming evidence of 'linear, no threshold' damage from radioactive particles in the environment, when do you intend to replace nuclear power with environmentally-benign energy sources such as wind power, and nuclear weapons with environmentally-benign weapons that -- no matter how horrible their immediate destruction may be -- at least do not continue their destruction for generations after the war? Better yet, will you place a greater emphasis on peace negotiations than President Bush, who instead, forces other nations into war, and causes nearby nations to quiver with fear and decide to 'go nuclear,' as Iran is doing?"

"Considering that our worst fears about the dangers of low-level radiation, the dangers of proliferation, the dangers of accidents, and the dangers of terrorism are now being proven correct, both through epidemiological studies (that is to say, scientifically), and through world events such as 9-11, how do you intend to replace coal, oil and nuclear energy with alternative, clean, energy sources -- sources which are certainly up to the task, but have met with political roadblocks and financial disincentives instead of the encouragement they need and deserve? Will you be different?"

"Since no private investment group has EVER decided to invest enough money in nuclear power to build even ONE nuclear power plant -- EVER -- without enormous government subsidies and tax breaks, will you pledge that your administration will cancel ALL investments in this money-losing technology, including canceling Price-Anderson so at least these behemoths have to pay their own way when they shop for insurance? Will you recognize the overwhelming scientific evidence showing that nuclear power is dangerous, dirty, inefficient, susceptible to terrorism, and, above all, destroys the democratic principles of this country because it is so secretive and so centralized, and in many cases, so poorly run? Aren't you sick of nuclear proponents who are so sanctimonious they won't even admit that children, infants, and fetuses are far more harmed by radiation than you or I?

"Since Yucca Mountain is opposed by virtually everyone in Nevada as well as their elected officials, as well as by millions of people along the dangerous transportation routes, and since the science behind or underneath Yucca Mountain has not passed 'peer review' and is known to be flawed simply because it makes too many wild assertions about what the future holds to be anything else, and since there is no other possible cleaner way to handle nuclear waste from either nuclear weapons or nuclear power, and since every milligram of radioactive waste is not only in itself a serious health threat, but also has a significant cost associated with protecting the environment from it for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, are you going to be the American President who admits the failure of an entire concept: That nuclear power is as much a failure as nuclear weapons, and that both have only brought the world misery and despair, lies, cancer, leukemias other health effects, and to the brink of financial ruin? Are you strong enough to be rational about this?"

Yours,

Ace

At 12:47 PM 4/12/2008 -0700, you wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: lyn harris hicks
>To: Creed
>Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 12:38 PM
>Subject: Fw: ALERT !! Question/statement on Nuclear Proliferation for Presidential campaign
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Creed
>To: lynharrishicks@cox.net
>Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 12:21 PM
>Subject: ALERT !! Question/statement on Nuclear Proliferation for Presidential campaign br>>
> To: CREED ORGANIZATION LIAISONS AND FOR -INFORMATION CONTACTS
>
>Please forgive duplicate reception; this Alert is sent to ALL CREED ALERT lists.

TO: CREED ORGANIZATION LIAISONS AND INFORMATION CONTACTS


NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION THREAT / QUESTION FOR CAMPAIGNS

CREED steering group development of a short question on NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION is underway, for use by presidential election campaigners of any political party. It will be revised to an expanded statement on the complex issue. Your participation is welcomed.

We have Democratic Party Caucus attendees' requests for an immediate sample of the short form question. The Democratic Party Caucus to elect delegates to the Party presidential candidate selection convention in Denver, in August, is tomorrow, April 13, at 3 p.m. (go to www.cadem.org for more information). We recognize the question/statement is a need, equally for you who are members of other political parties.

Because the nuclear proliferation threat, both nuclear armaments and enabling/fuel nuclear power generation, is twin domestic and international, it should be a major issue in all political party presidential campaigns.

If you are intending, or considering, participation in a Democratic Party Caucus, tomorrow, please respond to this email, immediate reply email or 949 492 5078.

Whatever your Party or candidate "leaning," please send suggestions for our short-form and long-form question/statement that we can incorporate in the delegate selection proceedings tomorrow.

The question/statement will not be posed, as representing CREED, when presented to any individual or group but the CREED steering group may decide to allow recognition of their role in development of the text when it is presented, after it has been submitted
to our CREED lists for substantive and editorial comment.

Please send this offer to your organization members and friends whom you think might
appreciate this opportunity.

Lyn Harris Hicks, 949 492 5078

"Creed" <Creedmail@cox.net>


... And let's try to help in Hawaii, too!

From: "shannon rudolph" <shannonkona@gmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: DU ALERT ( This Week-end!)

PLEASE FORWARD!!! (mainland friends, too!)

please take a quick minute this week-end to send your agreement with the Sierra Club letter to the elected officials listed below. if possible please add your own short letter. (they take these more seriously)
love, shannon
...........................................................................................................

Dear folks, please urge that Army meetings on depleted uranium include independent resource people. The message below goes to Congresspeople, Governor Lingle, Hawai'i Island state legislators, Mayor Kim, and Hawai'i County Council. Mahalo, Cory Harden

SUBJECT
depleted uranium
TO
neil.abercrombie@mail.house.gov
senator@akaka.senate.gov
mazie.hirono@mail.house.gov
Governor.Lingle@hawaii.gov
repchang@capitol.hawaii.gov
repevans@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repgreen@capitol.hawaii.gov
rephanohano@capitol.hawaii.gov
repherkes@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reptakamine@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reptsuji@Capitol.hawaii.gov
seninouye@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkokubun@capitol.hawaii.gov
senwhalen@capitol.hawaii.gov
cohsecy@co.hawaii.hi.us
bford@co.hawaii.hi.us
shiga@co.hawaii.hi.us
phoffmann@co.hawaii.hi.us
dikeda@co.hawaii.hi.us
jjaco@co.hawaii.hi.us
enaeole@co.hawaii.hi.us
kapilago@co.hawaii.hi.us
dyagong@co.hawaii.hi.us
jyoshimoto@co.hawaii.hi.us

MESSAGE



Dear local government officials--I support this letter--

Dear Colonel Killian,

Please include independent resource people, with full opportunity to ask questions and participate in discussion, in any meetings with public officials on depleted uranium (DU) at Pohakuloa. (Your Project Current Status 14 Mar 08 document says Tad Davis will see "key leaders" April 13-17.)

Given the specialized knowledge needed to accurately assess and remediate DU hazards, and the level of public concern, we feel an independent perspective is called for.

The resource people we recommend are Lorrin Pang and J.D. Thompson.

Dr. Lorrin Pang of Maui is a physician who served 24 years in the Army Medical Corps. He was also a World Health Organization consultant. He is now district health officer for Maui County, but speaks on DU as a private citizen.

J.D. Thompson of Pahoa has a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He retired from the Department of Physics, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where in addition to teaching physics, he was the Radiation Safety Officer for about 25 years. He had radioisotope training at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

We also hope your briefing, and your report to be released to the public, will respond to our unanswered letters of November 18, 2007 and January 15, 2008.

Mahalo,
Cory Harden
Sierra Club, Moku Loa group
PO Box 1137
Hilo, Hawaii 96721
808-968-8965
mh@interpac.net


----------------------------------------------------
This email is from:

** Russell "Ace" Hoffman, Carlsbad CA

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link by J. J. Mangano (a book review)

April 10th, 2008

Dear Readers,

YOU NEED THIS BOOK!

I own close to 400 books on nuclear power. I've read over a hundred of them completely, in case you're wondering. Take it from me: THIS ONE IS SPECIAL.

Joseph J. Mangano's newest book, Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link, is written by a scientist, and is about science, but is hardly cold and dry. Somehow in a mere 149 pages (plus ten pages of references), Mangano has written THE definitive guide to understanding what the radiation debate is all about: How we got where we are, how strong the scientific evidence against nuclear power really is, how bad the political situation really is, and what we've got to do to fix it -- he covers it all.

This book is absolutely monumental in its scope and I urge EVERYONE to immediately purchase a copy. [Subscribers to my newsletter INCLUDING MEDIA may request a FREE COPY directly from me. Or you can spare me the expense and order your own copy directly from the UNPLUG Salem activist group which is handling the sales for Mangano (and who I will be ordering your copy from anyway). Contact details are shown below.]

Mangano is a gifted writer, and Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link comes across as the detective story it is. For most of us, by the end, he has established definitively enough WHO the guilty party is -- RADIATION. But HOW can the good guys bring down the bad guys? How can WE stop nuclear power?

His book is how. Send copies of Mangano's book to all your legislators, your governor, your local health officials, etc.. Demand that studies like the Tooth Fairy Project be done for ALL radioactive elements released from nuclear power plants (Mangano's book almost exclusively discusses only Strontium-90: How they've tried to track Sr-90, and what cancers and deaths its presence is correlated with).

I'll give you one example of the sleazy statistical tricks used by pro-nuclear zealots, which Mangano coldly exposes and explains:

My local nuclear power plant, San Onofre, has had exactly ONE study of health effects around the plant done in nearly 40 years of operation. And that ONE study ONLY studied childhood cancer DEATHS at a time when medical breakthroughs were vastly INCREASING THE SURVIVAL RATE of such cancers. Death rates AT THE TIME (no longer) were, in fact, going DOWN.

But INCIDENCE RATES were going up. They never studied THAT. They never studied the real problem. And TO THIS DAY SAN ONOFRE USES THAT AWFUL, BIASED, DISGUSTING STATISTICAL HOGWASH TO "PROVE" SAN ONOFRE DOESN'T KILL ***ANY*** CHILDREN! It's a lie.

Okay, I'm getting excited here. You will too. Buy this book. GET EXCITED. Don't just wonder why you, or your parents, or your friends, or your child, or your sibling, or all of them, got cancer. Nuclear power could be the answer, as this book explains.

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman, Carlsbad, California USA (Images of Mangano's 2008 and 2012 books added 2025)


Also by Joe Mangano (2012):

In addition to Hoffman's huge collection of nuclear-related books and videos, Hoffman has interviewed more than a thousand scientists on nuclear topics. He is also an award-winning educational software developer whose programs are used in hundreds of universities. His nuclear-related essays have appeared frequently on the Internet.



Contact information for UNPLUG Salem:
Hi all,

You can buy Joe Mangano's book either through the link at the bottom of this email, or directly from the UNPLUG Salem Campaign. If you buy it through UNPLUG, Joe will autograph your copy.

Cost thru UNPLUG is 20.00 plus 4.60 shipping ­ total of 24.60. Please send you check to the address below, or call me with your credit card information. Multiple quantity discounts may be available.

Please let me know how many copies you need.

Thanks

Norm Cohen

Coalition for Peace and Justice; UNPLUG Salem Campaign, 321 Barr Ave, Linwood; NJ; 08221; 609-601-8583; Cell Phone - 609-335-8176; MySpace http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=60500355

websites: www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org

www.unplugsalem.org


To order Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link by Joseph J. Mangano from B&N:
Barnes and Nobel:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?ISBSRC=Y&ISBN=9781566199094&z=y
Publisher: Radiation and Public Health Project
Pub. Date: October 2007
ISBN-13: 9781566199094
Edition Description: Only From B&N Books
Release information from Joseph J. Mangano:
From: Odiejoe@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 10:32 AM
Subject: New book on baby tooth studies features New Jersey/Oyster Creek

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce that my latest book Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link has just been published and is available for purchase, from Barnes and Noble for $20 (see link below).

The book is the story of studies measuring radioactive Strontium-90 in baby teeth, and how these studies affected public policy. It includes research projects in the U.S. and abroad on fallout from atomic weapons tests, emissions from Chernobyl, and routine emissions from reactors (including our own study near U.S. nuclear plants).

This is the first attempt to describe in-body radioactivity studies in one volume. These efforts exemplify how citizens and scientists can collaborate to generate knowledge that can effectively have an impact on critical public issues. While technical topics are covered, an easy-to-read style ensures that all citizens can understand the book.

Please note that I have devoted an entire chapter to the "New Jersey story", which is an account of the concerns about health risk from the Oyster Creek reactor; the Toms River cancer cluster; the tooth study in New Jersey; and the battle over license extension.

I would appreciate if your organization would post a web site notice on how to purchase the book. Please let me know if you have further ideas.

With many thanks,

Joe Mangano
Executive Director

Radiation and Public Health Project


Contact info for the author of this newsletter appears below...

###


Quotes collected by Ace Hoffman:
"Nuclear war must be the most carefully avoided topic of general significance in the contemporary world. People are not curious about the details." -- Paul Brians (author; quote is from: Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction)
"When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." -- Sinclair Lewis (first American Nobel Prize winner in Literature, 2.7.1885 - 1.10.1951)
"There is no such thing as a pro-nuclear environmentalist." -- Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa, 1992)
"Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories." -- Sun Tzu (Chinese general b.500 BC)
"Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results." -- Margaret Atwood (Canadian poet/novelist/environmentalist/etc.)
"The sun shows up every day and produces ridiculous amounts of power." -- Elon Musk (5.1.2015)
"The most intolerable reactor of all may be one which comes successfully to the end of its planned life having produced mountains of radioactive waste for which there is no disposal safe from earthquake damage or sabotage." -- A. Stanley Thompson (a pioneer nuclear physicist who later realized the whole situation)
"Any dose is an overdose." -- Dr. John W. Gofman (another pioneer nuclear physicist who saw the light (9.21.1918 - 8.15.2007))
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery." -- Octavia Butler (science fiction writer, 7.22.1947 - 2.24.2006)
"If you want real welfare reform, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.

If you want to reduce poverty, you focus on a good education, good healthcare, and a good job.

If you want a stable middle class, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.

If you want to have citizens who can participate in democracy, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.

And if you want to end the violence, you could build a million new prisons and you could fill them up, but you never end this cycle of violence unless you invest in the health and the skill and the intellect and the character of our children. You focus on a good education, good health care and a good job.

And other than that, I don't feel strongly about anything."

-- Paul Wellstone (US Senator, D-Minnesota, 7.21.1944 - 10.25.2002)


"There are no warlike peoples - just warlike leaders." -- Ralph Bunche (8.7.1903 - 12.9.1971)
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Officials from the San Onofre nuclear reactor said the warning siren that went off yesterday was just a malfunction and no one should worry. Hey, I worry, if they can't even get the siren to work right, what the hell are they doing with the reactor??" Jay Leno 1/20/10
"Please send this to everyone you know!" -- Ace Hoffman (original collector of the above quotes, January, 2008)


Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, California USA
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Email: ace [at] acehoffman.org
Founder & Owner, The Animated Software Company



Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Pro-nukers are drowning globally in a sea of dismal facts...

March 26th, 2008 -- Today's items:

1) Canadian media pushes for nuclear power
2) Africa: Dump to the world
3) Scientists, Engineers demand Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant be closed:
4) Living through another Hiroshima
5) Contact information for the author of this newsletter (and quotes)


Dear Readers,

I again implore everyone, especially Californians, to contact Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and urge him to reverse is position in support of nuclear power. (Please see yesterday's newsletter for more information.) The URL for contacting the Governor is:

http://gov.ca.gov/interact


Today I'm presenting three powerful articles from around the world, plus a brief commentary responding to an editorial in Canada.

It is clear that the pro-DNA movement (aka the "anti-nuclear movement" but I don't like that term and neither should you) is incredibly widespread, pushing for a more healthy alternative for the planet. But we ALL must think globally, and ACT GLOBALLY. Please contact these organizations and writers and get on their mailing lists. Let them know you appreciate their efforts. Show them you're listening.

And Californians: PLEASE WRITE TO OUR GOVERNOR!

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman, Carlsbad, California USA (images added 2025)



(1) Canadian media pushes for nuclear power:

Nuclear Energy Earns Trust Guest Editorial in the Penticton (B. C. Canada) Herald, March 24th, 2008:

Anyone who says cultural attitudes are fixed in stone should think about the astonishing transformation in how we think about nuclear energy.

For many years, nuclear power was a terrifying thing. Lingering images of Hiroshima, and then later the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, caused many businesses and governments to shiver at the idea of investing in nuclear energy.

Today we have communities in Ontario that are actually lobbying to have nuclear plants built in their jurisdictions. Most notably, people living around the Nanticoke coal-fired station hope to play host to a renewed nuclear industry in the province. Community leaders rightly believe a nuclear plant in the neighbourhood would translate into hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars for the local economy.

Nuclear energy is enjoying a renaissance for several reasons. It is a clean form of energy. Suddenly, people are more afraid of global warming caused by burning coal than they are by the risks associated with nuclear power.

So, too, the global security risk associated with propping up dictators by buying their oil is arguably greater than the risk of nuclear accidents in our own borders. As experts continue to crunch the numbers and do the cost-benefit analyses, nuclear energy increasingly emerges as the most viable way to power our cities in the 21st century. Nuclear energy still has real problems -- the issue of wastes is the biggest -- but it appears to be better than the traditional alternatives.

That some communities are not just willing to accept this reality but are embracing it shows that nuclear's rehabilitation is nearly complete.

-- Ottawa Citizen


My response:
To: "S. Paul Varga - Managing Editor" <paul.varga@pentictonherald.ca>
Subject: The nuclear industry is based on lies
Cc: "Drew Gragg, Deputy Editor" <dgragg@thecitizen.canwest.com>, "Graham Green, Executive Editor" <ggreen@thecitizen.canwest.com>, "Derek Shelly, Senior Editor" <dshelly@thecitizen.canwest.com >, "Ruth Dunley, Associate Editor" <rdunley@thecitizen.canwest.com>

March 25th, 2008

To The Editor,

What was the "Ottawa Citizen" editor who wrote Monday's guest editorial ("Nuclear Industry Earns Trust") thinking? Did the editor talk to ANYONE outside the nuclear industry before composing their pro-nuclear propaganda?

Nuclear power has not earned ANY trust among people who have properly investigated it. The whole industry is based on lies. It lies every time there is an accident. It lies about its past. And it lies about what the future holds for those foolish enough to embrace nuclear power.

Admittedly, the nuclear industry IS getting better at LYING -- at using statistical gibberish to avoid culpability for cancers, leukemias, childhood deformities and other diseases. The nuclear industry claims that less than 30 people died because of Chernobyl -- a blatant lie. There are few more persistent and evil lies in history than that one -- Holocaust denial being similarly insidious. The real number Chernobyl has killed is surely in the tens of thousands and probably in the hundreds of thousands. And people will continue to die because of Chernobyl for thousands of years to come.

The nuclear industry ignores scientific studies about "free radical" damage to DNA, but at the same time, makes specious and false claims about being "emission free."

The nuclear industry is vulnerable to terrorism, recurrent embrittlement problems, financial woes, and legal liability issues that go well beyond the insurance fraud upon which the nuclear power industry is based. And did I mention poor workmanship, management problems, and -- perhaps most terrifying -- worker threats to the plants? These are in addition to the waste issue admitted to in the pro-nuclear guest editorial and they are NOT small problems.

Considering that electricity can be supplied a thousand different CLEAN ways, nuclear power is unquestionably the most devastating and useless industry ever devised.

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman, Carlsbad, California USA

The author, 51, who has studied nuclear issues for many decades, is an award-winning educational software developer and has interviewed thousands of scientists on both sides of the nuclear debate.


(2) Africa: Dump to the world:

Ingela Richardson's words should echo worldwide, among the citizens of countries who let their corporations use Africa as a global dump, and among citizens of countries which also are considering reprocessing or mining uranium, or building new nuclear waste generation machines (aka nuclear power plants). -- Ace


To: <letters@mg.co.za>
Subject: Africa - toxic dump for the industrialized world

OPINION

AFRICA - TOXIC DUMP FOR THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD

by Ingela Richardson

"Toxic terrorism" and "garbage imperialism" are terms that come up often in a resource list compiled by Deanna Lewis and Ron Chepesiuk. In their research, "The International Trade in Toxic Waste" one African official says the Third World has been turned into the industrialized world's "outhouse".

A polite word - considering what it has meant for the people of Africa, where certain "recycling" facilities do not have adequate safety or environmental standards. There is not enough protective equipment and workers suffer lead and mercury poisoning, increased rates of birth defects and miscarriages, kidney disease, cancer and even death from toxic waste. To avoid negative publicity and laws against dumping toxic wastes, many companies just change the labels on their freight.

And yet, South Africa is planning to lead a nuclear charge into Africa. Nuclear power has been advertised across the continent as the answer to Africa's energy needs, which is ironic, considering major security issues like the genocide in Rwanda, "blood diamond" wars in Sierra Leone and the illegal trade in uranium and nuclear materials.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seems to think that spending 7 million Euros on "nuclear security" in Africa will somehow prevent an African nuclear holocaust. According to a report on their website, "Ghana, South Africa, Morocco and Nigeria are among the countries the IAEA will work with to secure nuclear and radioactive materials and sites at risk of sabotage. South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia are among countries the IAEA will assist to strengthen their capabilities to detect and respond to illicit trafficking".

Why is the international community not simply investing their millions in safer renewable energy providers? Maybe because these nations' own nuclear power stations require continuing supplies of uranium that they want from Africa.

What is the nuclear threat to Africa? Only last year, a gang of armed men broke into the Pelindaba nuclear facility. Three men have already been condemned by South African courts for smuggling nuclear materials. And in Niger armed men attacked a uranium prospecting camp maintained by the French company Areva, killing a security guard and wounding three other people. In the Congo, a thin barbwire fence protects a nuclear research reactor with an outdated control room and unguarded radioactive waste storage building. The Congo has repeatedly been accused of illegally selling uranium and not preventing smuggling.

According to a report on the IAEA website, Congo allows the IAEA to conduct "intrusive, short-notice inspections", but "safety conditions at the often chaotic Shinkolobwe mines in its unstable Katanga province have given cause for concern".

So the IAEA has sent African member states on "workshops" and "courses" to improve nuclear security. Does Africa feel safer?

French nuclear company Areva plans to build 12 nuclear reactors in South Africa. The first - Nuclear 1 - would cost N$120 billion (that's Namibian dollars - who knows what Eskom's latest number is in South African rands?). It seems that Eskom wants nuclear power plants of 20 000 MW total capacity to be built in South Africa before 2025.

Namibia also plans to build a nuclear reactor according to a report in "The Namibian", although it does not yet have a regulatory framework to govern issues like waste. Another report states that Namibia is considering the "floating nuclear reactors" that Russia has not been able to sell to anyone else due to safety concerns.

And Zimbabwe's "Herald" said: "Zimbabwe has had plans to invest in nuclear energy since the 1990s, and there were plans to acquire a nuclear reactor from Argentina to process uranium". But also that: "It is widely perceived that a region-wide switch to nuclear energy without qualified human resources will result in an exponential increase in the proliferation of weapons grade uranium on the global nuclear parallel market and raise the risk of a major catastrophe with nuclear plants".

In Malawi, Keyelekera is targeted for uranium mining, despite resistance from environmentalists and human rights organisations. Here, 200 tonnes of sulphuric acid would be used daily in the uranium leaching process. Environmental experts warned of contamination of rivers and watercourses, and that leaks of ammonia and sulphur-dioxide threaten more than 1000 people in the area.

It would be very nice to think that highly toxic nuclear waste is "recycled" or simply disappears. But the reality is that no nation in the industrialized world has any "disposal" solution. The best idea that nuclear scientists have come up with is to bury nuclear waste in a large hole in the ground - not like the one Necsa is already using at Vaalputs in Namaqualand - but a huge tunnel that costs millions and looks more like an underground subway station.

There is no question as to the extreme expense and toxicity of nuclear waste. The only question is - where the industrialized world plans to put theirs? In Africa? The toxic dump of the industrialized world?

Ingela Richardson is an environmental activist based in the Eastern Cape of South Africa


(3) Scientists, Engineers demand Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant be closed:

There are NO safe nuclear power plants and no safe locations for those unsafe nuclear plants. But some locations and some plants are more obviously unsafe than others. The document shown below joins the others in this newsletter to show that the "nuclear renaissance" claimed in the first item's pronuclear editorial (above) is little more than the cries of a dead man walking. In the long term, it is NOT a question of IF humanity will close ALL the nuclear power plants globally -- WE WILL. It's just a question of WHEN. Many scientists in the United States feel that it will take a MELTDOWN HERE to convince Americans nukes are not the answer to global warming, foreign oil strangleholds, or any other problem we think we have. If that's what it takes, so it shall be. -- Ace


From: http://cnic.jp/english/topics/safety/earthquake/kkscientist24feb08.html

Close Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant

CNIC Press Release (24 February 2008)

Green Action Media Briefing (26 February 2008)

Scientists, Engineers demand Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant be closed

The Group of Concerned Scientists and Engineers Calling for the Closure of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant (KK Scientists)1 launched a Japanese leaflet in Kashiwazaki City on 24 February 2008. The leaflet, which is being distributed to residents of Niigata Prefecture, explains why the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant should be closed.

An English translation of the leaflet has been published in CNIC's English newsletter, Nuke Info Tokyo 123 (March/April 2008). The Japanese version of the leaflet can be ordered from the following web site:
http://kkheisa.blog117.fc2.com/ (Japanese site)

Before the full translation was available, Green Action compiled a media briefing from publicly available documents issued in English and Japanese by KK Scientists, Kashiwazaki and Kariwa residents and legislators, and NGOs in Japan calling for closure of Tokyo Electric's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. Click here to find out the facts the Japanese nuclear industry may not reveal to the international community.

After the 16 July 2007 Chuetsu-oki Earthquake2, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) established the "Subcommittee for Investigation and Response to the Nuclear Facilities affected by Chuetsu-oki Earthquake" and ordered Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to check equipment and carry out seismic response analysis. The KK Scientists point out that these investigations are not objective scientific and technical investigations, because they are based on the premise that the plant will be restarted in the near future. The KK Scientists demand that the option of permanent closure of the plant be retained.

The nuclear industry is attempting to lend authority to the investigations being carried out by Tokyo Electric and the government by holding an international symposium in Kashiwazaki City on 26-27 February 2008. The International Symposium on Seismic Safety of Nuclear Power Plants and Lessons Learned, sponsored by Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, Japan Nuclear Technology Institute, and Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, will downplay or ignore the most obvious problem, namely that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, located in the middle of an earthquake belt, is built on ground which is unsuitable for a nuclear power plant.

The KK Scientists believe that it is necessary to highlight the problems of the biased investigation being carried out by the government regulatory authorities and TEPCO. Their key arguments are as follows:
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa was never a suitable place to build a nuclear power plant.
Sloppy safety assessments by TEPCO and the government ignored a 30 km-long active submarine fault.
The July 2007 Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake was a miraculously lucky escape.
The Japanese government is violating its own rules concerning seismic design.
The danger of another large earthquake remains.
Important safety equipment may have been seriously damaged due to the Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake.
TEPCO's equipment checks are not capable of identifying all the damage.
TEPCO's seismic response analysis fails to identify the true situation.
Struck by a double blow of aging and an earthquake, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa should not be restarted.

Notes:
1. KK Scientists was formed shortly after the Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake by four scientists/engineers who, on 21 August 2007, issued an appeal, "Call for Closure of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant". To date over 200 scientists and engineers have endorsed this appeal. They are actively demanding that objective scientific and technical investigations be carried out keeping in mind the possibility of permanent closure of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.

2. The Chuetsu-oki Earthquake, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, struck just off the coast of Niigata Prefecture on the Japan Sea side of Honshu, Japan's largest island, at 10:13 am on 16 July 2007. As a result of the quake, four reactors (units 2, 3, 4 & 7) at Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant shut down automatically. At the time, unit 2 was being started up after a periodic inspection, while the other three units (1, 5 & 6) were shut down undergoing periodic inspection.

Contact for the Group of Concerned Scientists and Engineers Calling for the Closure of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant:
The Takagi Fund for Citizen Science (Tamotsu Sugenami)

For English inquiries contact Citizens' Nuclear Information Center.

Return to CNIC's Earthquakes and Nuclear Power page
CNIC
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
Akebonobashi Co-op 2F-B, 8-5 Sumiyoshi-cho,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0065, Japan
TEL.03-3357-3800
FAX.03-3357-3801

http://cnic.jp/english/


(4) Living through another Hiroshima:
The nuclear weapons exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki keep on killing. The fission products which were released are especially fearsome because they often mimic biologically-useful elements and enter the food chain. They also tend to have shorter half-lives (than, say, Pu or U). But even so-called "Depleted" Uranium, which contains uranium and plutonium isotopes with various half-lives from hundreds of thousands to billions of years, is extremely toxic, both as a heavy metal and as a radiological hazard. We (Americans, and dozens of other nations, too) are using DU in every war we engage in. But it's clear that we know there is something very, very wrong with DU, since NO POLICE FORCE IN AMERICA (or anywhere in the world, as far as I know) IS ALLOWED TO USE DU BULLETS! Why not? Because they're poisonous, that's why not! They produce poisonous gas, poisonous nano-particles, poisonous chunks, and they poison anything they land on. THAT's why not. Despite any lie the Pentagon (or any other armed force) might make, the use of Depleted Uranium in war IS a war crime. An ongoing war crime. -- Ace

From: "MarshaRose" <mrjoy@hawaii.rr.com>
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Fw: "We are living through another Hiroshima," Iraqi doctor says]
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:51:51 -1000


----- Original Message -----
From: pete shimazaki doktor
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 3:37 PM
Subject: "We are living through another Hiroshima," Iraqi doctor says]


http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13637
"We are living through another Hiroshima," Iraqi doctor says
By Sherwood Ross
Created Mar 24 2008 - 8:41am


The U.S., Great Britain and Israel are turning portions of the Middle East into a slice of radioactive hell. They are achieving this by firing what they call "depleted uranium" (DU) ammunition but which is, in fact, radioactive ammunition and it is perhaps the deadliest kind of tactical ammo ever devised in the warped mind of man.

There's a ton of data about this on the Internet for the skeptics: from sources such as the 1999 report of the International Atomic Energy Commission to oncologist members of England's Royal Society of Physicians to U.S. Veterans Administration hospital nuclear medicine doctors to officials at the Basra maternity and pediatric hospital to reporter Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor. Peterson used a Geiger counter in August, 2003 to find radiation readings between 1,000 and 1,900 times normal where bunker buster bombs and munitions had exploded near Baghdad. After all, a typical bunker bomb is said to contain more than a ton of depleted uranium.

For a concise overview on radioactive warfare, read "DU And The Liberation of Iraq" by Christian Scherrer, a researcher at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, published on Znet on April 13, 2003. Scherrer states: "Based on the report of the 48th meeting issued by the UN Committee dealing with effects of Atomic radiation on 20th April 1999, noting the rapid increase in mortality caused by DU between 1991 and 1997, the IAEA document predicted the death of half a million Iraqis, noting that...'some 700-800 tons of depleted uranium was used in bombing the military zones south of Iraq. Such a quantity has a radiation effect, sufficient to cause 500,000 cases which may lead to death."

Scherrer writes, "In 1991 the DU ammunition was mainly used against Iraqi tanks in the desert near Basra, while in the present war DU is being used all over Iraq, even in densely populated areas including the heart of Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit and other cities." He adds that, based on IAEA estimates and his previous research, "the death toll may surpass a million deaths over the next few years, with more to follow!"

Scherrer notes, incidentally, the UN's Human Rights Commission back in 1996 declared DU a weapon of mass destruction(WMD) and that those who use it are guilty of a crime against humanity. Among its users: the first President Bush, President Bill Clinton, who irradiated the Balkans, and the current occupant of the White House.

Now let's hear it from Iraqi doctors: Oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali of Basra Hospital and Professor Husam al-Jarmokly of Baghdad University "showed a rapidly increasing death toll in Iraq since 1991 due to cancer and leukemia caused by U.S. radiological warfare," Scherrer writes, based on their presentation of December 1, 2002 at the Peace Memorial Hall in Hiroshima. Al-Ali, who is also a member of England's Royal Society of Physicians, is quoted in Feb. 5, 2001, "CounterPunch" as stating, "The desert dust carries death. Our studies indicate that more than 40% of the population around Basra will get cancer. We are living through another Hiroshima." (Basra is a city of 1.7 million. Does that mean 680,000 people will be stricken? That toll alone would be more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki's casualties.)

The same article also reported since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent and, similarly, "The leukemia rate in Sarajevo, pummeled by American bombs in 1996, has tripled in the last five years" and "NATO and UN peacekeepers in the region are also coming down with cancer."

Dr. Zenad Mohammed, employed in the maternity department of the Basra teaching hospital, said in the three-months beginning in August, 1998, 10 babies were born with no heads, eight with abnormally large heads and six with deformed limbs, according to a report on World Socialist Web Site of September 8, 1999. And the British Guardian newspaper reported Basra maternity reported cancer cases shot up from 80 in 1990 to 380 in 1997.

Reporter Phil Gardner quotes Dr. Basma Al Asam, a gynecologist, at Al Manoon hospital, Baghdad, stating: "I've been watching this for seven years now and it's increasing. We're not just seeing babies born with congenital abnormalities, but very late spontaneous abortions because of congenital defects. In the past we used to see, maybe, one a month. Now it is two or three cases per day." (Two to three cases a day, h-m-m-m, does that equal about 1,000 a year at this one hospital?)

And from American doctors: Colonel Asaf Durakovic, formerly chief of nuclear medicine at the VA hospital in Wilmington, Del., said he found uranium isotopes in the bodies of Persian Gulf War veterans. The New York Times reported on January 29, 2001, Dr. Durakovic said he found "depleted uranium, including uranium 236, in 62 percent of the sick gulf war veterans he examined. He believes that particles lodged in their bodies and may be the cause of their illness." Once inhaled, Dr. Durakovic noted, "uranium can get into the bloodstream, be carried to bone, lymph nodes, lungs or kidneys, lodge there, and cause damage when it emits low-level radiation over a long period," the Times reported. The Times article also called attention to the cancer deaths of 24 European soldiers that served as peacekeepers in the Balkans "and the illnesses reported by many others."

And from a U.S. researcher: Roberto Gwiazda, of the environmental toxicology department at the University of California Santa Cruz, was the lead researcher examining returned Gulf War veterans that had radioactive shrapnel wounds. The university's "City On A Hill Press" newspaper quotes him as saying, "Of those with radioactive shrapnel wounds, all had significant levels of uranium in their urine seven to nine years after the explosion. Of those who only inhaled the incendiary uranium, a statistically significant number also had high uranium levels."

And from U.S. veterans: Tom Cassidy, of the 1st Cavalry Division who saw service in Iraq in 2003-05: "After the first gulf war, the level of radiation was 300 times what is considered normal. In this invasion we used even more DU bullets. The effects there are horrible," he told the UCSC paper. Added Dennis Kyne, from the U.S. Army's 18th Airborne division and Desert Storm veteran and who suffers from an "undiagnosed illness": "The scientists call it cell disruption, and they don't know why it's happening to veterans, but it's really radiation sickness, and it's because the DU is all over."
_______
About author

Sherwood Ross is an American reporter who has worked for major American newspapers and magazines as well as international wire services. To comment on this article or arrange for speaking engagements: sherwoodr1@yahoo.com

=====

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.


5) Contact information for the author of this newsletter (and quotes):
Quotes collected by Ace Hoffman:
"Nuclear war must be the most carefully avoided topic of general significance in the contemporary world. People are not curious about the details." -- Paul Brians (author; quote is from: Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction)
"When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." -- Sinclair Lewis (first American Nobel Prize winner in Literature, 2.7.1885 - 1.10.1951)
"There is no such thing as a pro-nuclear environmentalist." -- Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa, 1992)
"Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories." -- Sun Tzu (Chinese general b.500 BC)
"The most intolerable reactor of all may be one which comes successfully to the end of its planned life having produced mountains of radioactive waste for which there is no disposal safe from earthquake damage or sabotage." -- A. Stanley Thompson (a pioneer nuclear physicist who later realized the whole situation)
"Any dose is an overdose." -- Dr. John W. Gofman (another pioneer nuclear physicist who saw the light (9.21.1918 - 8.15.2007))
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery." -- Octavia Butler (science fiction writer, 7.22.1947 - 2.24.2006)
"If you want real welfare reform, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.

If you want to reduce poverty, you focus on a good education, good healthcare, and a good job.

If you want a stable middle class, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.

If you want to have citizens who can participate in democracy, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.

And if you want to end the violence, you could build a million new prisons and you could fill them up, but you never end this cycle of violence unless you invest in the health and the skill and the intellect and the character of our children. You focus on a good education, good health care and a good job.

And other than that, I don't feel strongly about anything."

-- Paul Wellstone (US Senator, D-Minnesota, 7.21.1944 - 10.25.2002)


"There are no warlike peoples - just warlike leaders." -- Ralph Bunche (8.7.1903 - 12.9.1971)
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Please send this to everyone you know!" -- Ace Hoffman (original collector of the above quotes, January, 2008)


Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, California USA
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Email: ace [at] acehoffman.org
Founder & Owner, The Animated Software Company