RE: stop the madness

[Jack_Earley@rl.gov]

I also have an old newspaper that made many of the same claims; some were

science fiction, many others could probably have been realized had people

not let their fear, then ego, consume them. It took, as I recall, 30 years

before electricity was accepted because of fear of the unknown. Too cheap to

meter? If we take into account all that was and is and will be spent on

nonsense, like the opposition to WIPP and Yucca Mountain and shutting down

perfectly good NPPs, and had instead put that into reduced rates and R&D,

how far off would that claim be? Never forget that there are people whose

sole aim is to prevent cheap power.



Jack Earley

Radiological Engineer





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

From: Michael Stabin [mailto:michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu]

Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 12:08 PM

To: Radsafe

Subject: stop the madness





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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