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RE: Norm's final words on dead fish



I am beginning to think my comments on cooling towers may have been misconstrued. I am neither for or against them. I have worked at power stations (yes , nuclear) which employed both cooling systems and really have no preference. I was attempting to make the point that I am against the prohibitive cost of changing over to cooling towers when it is not of great import either way. Warm water creates more sea/lake life and intakes kill fish. Sounds like a trade-off to me. For those of you out there who oppose nuclear power in general , you'll have to do better than 'cooling towers' when attempting to close down all of the power stations. When the public in general weighs the balance between fishkills and trippling their electric bill , I think the fish are out of luck. And as an aside , while the anti-nuke side of the proverbial fence is researching the evils of nuclear power , how about looking into the amount of carbon dioxide the fossil plants put into the atmosphere , and acid rain and non renewable fossil fuel , and the damage done by hydro electric and the enormous land mass required for a windmill farm , and the subteranian voids left from pumping the oil out of the ground , and the havok visited on the landscape from strip mining for coal...... check into the treatment of Apalachean coal miners and the conditions they live in , check into oil spills , mine fires (some of which have burned unchecked for decades) and sink holes. Check into black lung. Then add up all the deaths attributable to other energy sources and compare the stats. Check the safety records. Then look at your power bill. A good percentage of your electricity comes from nuke plants. Go down to your circuit box and kill the main. Then walk around your home and flick the switches on and off. Feels kind's weird , doesn't it. It is a matter of supply and demand also. If such a great number of you wish for the demise of the nuclear industry , leave the main breaker off. If demand goes down enough you will get your way out of attrition. The plants will close. You will win. If you all believe as strongly as you profess in saving the environment from mean old mister nuclear , you will have to make some sacrafices. Start by turning off everything you own that uses electricity. I wish you the best of luck. For those of you out there whom don't fit the mold , this is not directed at you. Please do not take offense. It was just high time somebody said something.
Floyd Flanigan
-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Westbrook [mailto:janet.westbrook@home.com]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 9:07 PM
To: RuthWeiner@AOL.COM; Floyd.Flanigan@fernald.gov; ncohen12@home.com; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Re: Norm's final words on dead fish

Ruth --
 
You are right about origin of Legionnaire's Disease. However, at a national laboratory I used to work at, one of the reasons for restricting access to the now-torn-down decrepit cooling tower was that it had a potential for Legionella, the organism that causes the disease. I believe they checked for this regularly. It was the workers on and around the cooling tower who were at risk in this case, not the public.
 
                                                                                                                                                                Janet Westbrook
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: Norm's final words on dead fish

Floyd Flanigan wrote

>As to the legionaire's issue:The desease got it's name from an American Legion Post down wind from a cooling tower which bred the bacteria which causes the desease.Several of those whom frequented the post contracted the desease and died , hence the name.<

I don't believe that is correct.  As I recall, the disease (a respiratory infection like flu) struck a number of American Legion members who were staying in a hotel in Philadellphia at a Legion convention.  The cause was mold and bacteria in a ventilating/air conditioning system that hadn't been cleaned for a very long time.  As I recall, it had nothing whatever to do with cooling towers.  The effluent from a cooling tower, even if it were loaded with bacteria, would be so dispersed by the time it reached any concentration of people that it would be unlikely to cause any disease.  

Ruth

Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.
ruthweiner@aol.com