RE: what about this Norm?

["Michael Stabin" <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu>]

Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 08:11:05 -0500

From: "Flanigan, Floyd" <Floyd.Flanigan@FERNALD.GOV>

Subject: RE: what about this Norm?



Couldn't help weighing in on this one..... I've been a nuclear professional

for 16 years and I can bear witness that many different conclusions can be

drawn from the same ststistical data depending on what outcome you hope for

but in some cases we are forced to use common sense. Certain truths are

self-evident. Don't you think that it might just be possible that the people

who designed and built the power plants thought of these concerns during the

planning stages? In my opinion , the anti-nuke side of the fence is trying

to opportunize the terrorist threat to further their own agenda. Guess what

folks....... NOTHING is absolutely secure. There will always be the factor

of human error. There will always exist the possibility of someone accepting

a bribe or making a terrible mistake or falling into a job for which they

are nowhere near qualified and finding themself in over their head , forced

to make decisions which they have no ability to make. If we are to worry

about an ind!

!

ustry with a dedicated security force , shouldn't we worry that much more

about industry with NO security? Hey.....let's just see how badly we can

scare ourselves......How about the Dairy industry?! Who will protect our

milk cows from being contaminated by terrorists and causing who knows what

to happen to all those poor children on their milk breaks in elementary

school!? What if they take over all of our water processing facilities in

the middle of the night?! What will we drink now that they have already

ruined the milk supply!? What if they bribed the QA and Chem supervisors at

Coca Cola and they poisoned all the soft drinks!? What if that 'The Faculty

' movie was really true and all of the teachers to whom we entrust our kid's

safety is really a blood thirsty alien!? What if monkeys fly out of my ASS!

Come on .......we are supposed to be professionals in some capacity or

other. We are supposed to speak in the reassuring voice of reason. We are

supposed to be the guys that!

!

 soothe away the paranoia.......not the dorks who feed it in the name of

possibly being the one wacko in a million who guessed right and earned the

honor of saying 'SEE.....I told you so!' Let's stop feeding the fire and

live up to our credentials....shall we?

Humbley your's,

Floyd W. Flanigan BS Nuclear Health Physics

Fernald Environmental Project



- -----Original Message-----

From: Mercado, Don [mailto:don.mercado@LMCO.COM]

Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 3:50 PM

To: 'radsafe'; 'ncohen12@home.com'

Subject: RE: what about this Norm?





Okay Norm. Since you seem to be able to get DL of UCS to talk to you, why

don't you pose the excellent questions below to him and get back to us with

his answers?



> -----Original Message-----

> From: Thomas J Savin [SMTP:tjsav@LYCOS.COM]

> Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 6:07 AM

> To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

> Subject: what about this Norm?

>

> Steve has an excellent group of points (see below). What is your opinion

> on Yucca MT?  Just think of all the spent nuclear fuel that would be

> removed from nuclear power plants.  Do you think that a 747 would explode

> the  mountain, or maybe cause volcanic activity there? lets take care of

> two things at once.  Remove spent fuel from the plants and get rid of one

> of the terrorist options.

> ---

> Tom Savin

>

On 5 Nov 2001, 4:21 PM Norm Cohen wrote:



>>Of course I ran this by Dave Lochbaum and here's what he said:



>>"UCS is neither pro-nuke nor anti-nuke.



> On Mon, 5 Nov 2001 14:45:13

>  Steve Frantz wrote:

> >The UCS and other groups say that they are not anti-nuclear,

> >they are pro-nuclear safety.

> >

> >OK, then let them define their safety goal in measurable means.

> >

> >How thick of a containment is safe? How many hours of training

> >per year for the licensed operators? How many backup deisel

> >generators? What level of releases above background? How many

> >hours of NRC inspection per year? How many radiation induced

> >cancers in the neighboring population? Anything at all

> >quantifiable?

> >

[Mercado, Don]  <snip>

> >Can the plants be made safe through modification?

> >

[Mercado, Don]  <snip>

> >Will the plants be safe if they are shut down?

> >

> >Should the spent nuclear fuel be moved to Nevada or some other

> >storage facility?

[Mercado, Don]  <snip>

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