Re: FACTS ABOUT TENNESSEE ILLNESSES

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

I truly thought this kind of rant would not occur on RADSAFE.  As the wife
of a DOE retiree and a person with many friends and colleagues who work for
DOE (and worked for its predecessors, the AEC and FEA), I am left without
words to adequately describe my outrage.

Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
7336 Lew Wallace NE
Albuquerque, NM
505-856-5011
fax 505-856-5564
ruth_weiner@msn.com

-----Original Message-----
From: EASlavin@aol.com <EASlavin@aol.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thursday, April 06, 2000 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: FACTS ABOUT TENNESSEE ILLNESSES


>Dear Bill:
>
>Thanks.  The "arrogance of power" of the wannabees is also worsened by the
>"webees" -- we were here yesterday and we''ll be here tomorrow.
>
>People who would be fired in civilian nuclear powerplant operations get
>promoted in DOE.  Too many DOE managers are like the proverbial shotgun
>without a firing pin -- they won't work and they can't be fired.
>
>Too often, the DOE complex behaves like a boa constrictor, and puts its
"arms
>around" the civilian nuclear powerplant industry, treating y'all like
puppets
>on their string (or bullets in their gun).  That's what they did on this
>listserv with respect to the Tennessean series.   They inflamed your
>passions.  That cooptation may be more devastating to nuclear power than
TMI.
> Don't think DOE is your pal.  DOE is  fighting to survive as an agency,
and
>it will do or say anything. (Like the farmer said to his grandson, "they're
>rattlesnakes in there, and they're pitiless.")
>
>Don't let the bomb builder management culture's unpopularity, misfeasance,
>malfeasance and nonfeasance rub off on your profession. I find nuclear
>powerplant operations much more safety conscious than DOE.  IMHO NRC is
much
>more whistleblower conscious than DOE.  The DNFSB is a joke and won't even
>talk about generic problems, like whistleblower retaliation, as happened
>again in Oak Ridge  last night.  In contrast, NRC tries to be proactive,
even
>if its fines are paltry and years late.  It's a difference between trying
and
>not trying.  DOE doesn't try.
>
>Regards,
>
>Ed Slavin
>
>In a message dated 04/06/2000 3:09:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>liptonw@dteenergy.com writes:
>
><< As a former employee of a DOE contractor, your remark that "...I did not
>want to
> believe that these brilliant men with their good taste in opera, theatre
and
>the
> like could be capable of such actions as took place there. ..." strikes a
> resonant chord.  I like to believe that education goes beyond learning a
>trade,
> and makes you a better person.  My experience with DOE strongly challenged
>that
> belief.  It's bad enough when bad things are done out of ignorance.  It
>bothered
> me a lot more when they were done by people who considered themselves
>educated  and humane, and should have known better.  The best word for this
>is arrogance.   When my supervisor and I expressed concern about this, we
>were  told by  management that they encouraged arrogance, since such people
>did better work.  I   never accepted that.  I have known some truly
brilliant
>and educated people,  including a Nobel laureate, and they were not
arrogant.
> It's the wannabees who  are arrogant.  Hence, I am not at all surprised by
>the recent revelations about
> DOE sites.
>
> The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
> It's not about dose, it's about trust.
>
> Bill Lipton
> liptonw@dteenergy.com
>  >>
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