NIRS on Nat Acad Sci re West Valley

[JMUCKERHEIDE@delphi.com]

Group,

I find this anti-message takes advantage of our problem of just refering to
and depending on the NAS rather than stating some specific facts pretty
directly. 

Ward Valley will get done (after Babbitt's travesty of getting written
commitments that the additional NAS conditions be applied !!?? - and, while
NAS finds that pouring Pu at the planned rate of receipt directly in the
Colorado River is "trivial" compared to natural radioactivity in the river,
Babbitt wants a written commitment that Pu going into the site will not exceed 
the plan !??)  But there is no positive message, and public fears and
insecurities are reinforced by the process and message produced, by the
industry and the government agencies who know better. 

Regards, Jim
----------------------------------
> =2E.... snipped....
> But controversy arose over the Board from the beginning, with many --
> including NIRS -- charging that the Board was dominated, and has normally=
> been dominated, by nuclear power interests.
> 
> Indeed, before the report was released, NIRS research at the NAS revealed=
> that the Board and its predecessors had never issued a dissenting opinion=

> "This kind of unanimity of opinion:, said NIRS Director Michael Mariott=
> has only one source: unanimity of interest. Apart from a brief period =
> when a
> Board predecessor was dismantled for being too critical of the government' s
> nuclear policies, the Board has been a steadfast promoter of nuclear industry
> interests. That=92s not surprising, since its members have been nuclear
> industry scientists and advocates.
> 
> In short, the Ward Valley saga is far from over. Will Secretary Babbitt
> demand results of the additional testing recommended by the Board before a
> transfer decision? Activists are undeterred by the findings, since they
> expected even less from a discredited entity beholden to the nuclear power
> industry. In fact, the historic dissents have brought new scientific basis
> for their case...
> 
> WHAT YOU CAN DO... Contact Interior Secretary Babbitt and urge no transfer on
> Ward Valley land until the concerns of the dissenting scientists are properly
> resolved......
> 
> from The Nuclear Monitor May 22, 1995
> a publication of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service =
> 
> Washington DC 20036