Autobiography R. Shadis -Shared "Strictly in the cause of efficiency"

[SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM]

Radsafe:


For those who might wish to understand where Ray Shadis is coming from see a 

copy of a post he made to the antinuclear DOEWatch bulletin board a while 

back which can be read in full via the hyperlink below. If the hyperlink 

doesn't work, copy the url provided into your browser.  Mr. Shadis had noted 

in his post that:


"I intend to share this message with some other fine folks, strictly in the 

cause of efficiency" so there should be no problem sharing it with the fine 

folks of Radsafe as well. See:


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/doewatch/message/239

Click here to see full letter from Shadis on his goals to shut all nuclear 

plants


As noted from his own autobiography, Mr. Shadis is a professional 

anti-nuclear activist working for many years on shutting down all nuclear 

power stations in New England. I only hope that when they close all the lakes 

in Maine [and Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 

Connecticut, and southern Canada] to sportfishing due to mercury pollution 

from coal burning and the cumulative effects of acid rain, Mr. Shadis and his 

anti-nuclear associates step forward to take some of the well-deserved 

credit. Although, Mr. Shadis may not care, hundreds of  "pristine"  isolated 

lakes across Northern New England with no local pollution sources for mercury 

input, now have public health advisories warning pregnant women and children 

under 12 not to eat any fish or very limited amounts due to methylmercury 

building up from generalized air pollution, mainly from coal plants to the 

west. Eagles are turning up brain dead in Maine, Massachusetts, Upstate New 

York, and other parts of the Northeast due to mercury pollution from having 

eating tainted fish from "pristine" mountain lakes with no local pollution 

source. Loons in Lake Champlain {Vermont and New York State] cannot reproduce 

due to the toxicity of methyl mercury and its effects as a developmental 

toxin. 


Is radiation uniquely hazardous? I'm a lot more concerned about the actual 

present and commited long-term consequences of mercury pollution in the 

environment from fossil fuel combustion,  which is not going to decay away as 

would be the case with any localized minimal radioactive contamination. Mr. 

Shadis is presently concerned about the localized radioactivity from Maine 

Yankee operations which occured in Bailey Cove [a tidal mudflats] near Maine 

Yankee during its operation. I conducted numerous high pressure ionization 

chamber surveys at many parts of Bailey Cove to document incremental 

radiation dose during the peak periods of contamination in the 1970s. Even at 

its peak levels of contamination in the mudflats [the critical pathway was 

direct radiation dose to worm harvesters working the cove at low tide]  the 

incremental exposure rate over the most contamined sediments was less than 

the background radiation exposure rates over the granite shoreline around 

Bailey Cove due to the high uranium content of local granite. 


Also, Mr. Shadis, and earlier anti-nuclear groups like the Clamshell Alliance 

in New Hampshire which may have mutated into his "Friends of the Coast" group 

which he "deployed" in 1995  as part of his anti-nuclear strategy he puts it, 

 perhaps can take some small satisfaction & credit where it is due for 

driving up the cost of  electric power in New England by shutting down Maine 

Yankee and adding billions of dollars to the cost of Seabrook Station through 

legal and political delay tactics throughout the 1980s. As Mr. Shadis himself 

writes: "Of course, we are wildly egotistical about the wholer [sic] 

business."  I'm sure they are.  


I am reminded of the quote from the Charlie Shultz's  Peanuts which may be 

considered applicable to the work of Mr. Shadis, et.al.: "I shot an arrow in 

the air --Where it lands is someone else's problem"


For information about the NRC Panel to which Mr. Shadis has been invited to 

participate see:


http://wiscassetnewspaper.maine.com/2000-12-07/shadis_on_panel.html


Enjoy and let's all thank the search engine Google.


Stewart Farber, MS Public Health

Public Health Sciences

172 Old Orchard Way

Warren, Vermont 05674

[802] 496-3356

email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com

======

An excerpt from the above-cited post by Mr. Shadis follows:


"Please bear with an introduction- In 1979, my wife (now an attorney) and I 

filed the nation's first citizen initiative to close an operating 

reactor:Maine Yankee Atomic Power Station [MYAPS], then but six years old. 

41.9 percent of a resulting referendum vote favored immediate closure.The 

referendum committee we founded continued through two additional closure 

referenda, the last being in 1987. In 1982 I signed on as technical 

information coordinator for a local group intervening in a spent 

fuelconsolidation proposal at MY Atomic. We were successful in bringing the 

project to a standstill. This was one of a very few successful interventions 

in NRC history. About that time I joined the Board of Trustees of the New 

England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution and served as a trustee until February 

1998 when I resigned to accept a position as a fieldstaff person.My primary 

responsibilty is to develop an informational base[technical, largely] for 

closing the remainder of New England's nuclear stations. I should mention 

that, after 14 years of independent study of the nuclear contest, I developed 

a loose strategy for closing plants which I deployed in 1995 by founding 

Friends of the Coast. This small, local organization was instrumental in the 

forced shutdown of MYAPS after an intense 2 1/2 year campaign. We are now the 

only environmental advocacyorganization reppresented on Maine Yankee's 

Community Advisory Panel on Decommissioning.  We enjoy a good working, albeit 

adversarial, relationship with Maine Yankee staff and , according to recent 

MYAPS polling, we enjoy very high favorability and credibility ratings- far 

surpassing thecompany,the NRC, and most state agencies. Of course, we are 

wildly egotistical about the wholer [sic] business. However, the industry 

with the cooperation of the federal government is making a fine attempt at 

rendering the decommissioning of nuclear stations a non-issue. Friends of the 

Coast is an intervenor in a MYAPS FERC case:now in discovery.The New England 

Coalition is appealing a denial of standing as intervenors in the Yankee Rowe 

License Termination AND has joined in an application for a hearing on 

extending the refueling cycle onSeabrook Nuclear Station. Today, tommorrow, 

and the next day, I will be completing an NRC filing on restart issues for 

Millstone III Nuclear PowerStation. Busy, busy, busy.   What I am hoping for 

is develop a casual, information and support network of responsible, 

competent, and dedicated people who are working on nuclear waste stream and 

storage issues. Perhaps you would care to share your perceptions. Since I 

type poorly, painfully, and slowly, I intend to share this message with some 

other fine folks, strictly in the cause of efficiency. And perhaps we'll get 

a round-robin going. Perhaps a national symposium.  Thanks for all your good 

work.                              Ray"