stop the madness

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

The following from Don Kosloff



> From: "dkosloff1" <dkosloff1@email.msn.com>

> To: "Jerry Cohen" <jjcohen@prodigy.net>, <Icnscp@AOL.COM>,

>         <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

> References: <176.316cfd4.29904684@aol.com>

<000801c1addd$e8f2f9e0$359e68cf@k6v0b9>

> Subject: Re: stop the madness

> Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 12:49:56 -0500

>

> I have in front of me a microfilm copy of page 5 of the New York Times

dated

> September 17, 1954. It has the following article; this is the article

> exactly as it appeared:

>

> Main Headline: ABUNDANT POWER

> FROM ATOM SEEN

>

> Second Level Headline: It Will Be Too Cheap for Our Children to Meter,

Strauss

> Tells Science Writers

>

> Rear Admiral Lewis L. Strauss chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission,

> predicted here last night that industry would have electrical power from

> atomic furnaces in five to fifteen years.  "Our children will enjoy in

their

> homes electrical energy too cheap to meter," he declared. Admiral Strauss

> was the principal speaker at a dinner at the Statler Hotel celebrating the

> twentieth anniversary of the founding of the National Association of

Science

> Writers.

> He reported that in Brussels yesterday Dr. Lawrence Hafstad, head of the

> reactor development division of the Atomic Energy Commission, was prepared

> to be asked at the Congress of Industrial Chemistry the following

question:

> "How soon will you have industrial atomic electric power in the United

> States?" Admiral Strauss said Dr. Hafstad was prepared to answer: "From 5

> to 15 years, depending upon the vigor of the development effort."

> Admiral Strauss said this time scale could be shortened if research were

> pushed. Of the nation's $8,000,000,000 atomic program he said:

> "Transmutation of the elements, unlimited power, ability to investigate

> the workings of living cells by tracer atoms, the secret of photosynthesis

> about to be uncovered, these and a host of other results, all in fifteen

> short years.

> "It is not too much to expect that our children will know of great

> periodic famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel

> effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a

minimum

> of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a life span far longer

> than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him

to

> age."

> Admiral Strauss called upon science writers to help people understand

> that the Atomic Energy Commission conducts peaceable as well as military

> research, and that it is not true that the Atomic Energy Commission holds

a

> lot of secrets which it stubbornly refuses to publish. He said a stack of

> publishings three feet high was the unclassified output of

> commission-approved scientists this year.

> Three hundred scientists and writers attended the dinner. Dr. Harry L.

> Fisher paid tribute to the twelve writers who founded the National

> Association of Science Writers in 1934. Waldemar Kaempffert and William L.

> Laurence of The New York Times were among them. Alton Blakeslee of The

> Associated Press, president of the association, presided.

>

> --------------------------------------------------

>

> I will gladly send a photocopy of the NY Times article to anyone who sends

> me a copy of the coverage of this event from another paper or magazine.

Also

> any written record of similar comments anyone else made would be

> appreciated. I have several documents that indicate that AEC and "nuclear

> industry" personnel were realistic about the costs of nuclear power, I

would

> like to have some records that support the contention that the the

"nuclear

> industry" ever promised that nuclear electricity would be "too cheap to

> meter".

>

> Don Kosloff dkosloff1@msn.com

> 2910 Main Street, PERRY OH 44081-9593 03

>

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

> From: "Jerry Cohen" <jjcohen@prodigy.net>

> To: <Icnscp@AOL.COM>; <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 7:41 PM

> Subject: Re: stop the madness

>

>

> > Please cite a few examples of such deception. I've seen unattributed

> quotes

> > such as:

> > "nuclear power is completely safe",  " too cheap to meter", etc. etc.

> > Who made such statements, when were they made, and what was the context?

>

>



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