FW: Atomic Train -----> Hazardous Material Train

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca>]

For radsafers who didn't get this through CDN-NUCL-L

> ----------From: 	Cuttler, Jerry
> Reply To: 	cdn-nucl-l@informer1.CIS.McMaster.CA
> Sent: 	Wednesday, May 12, 1999 2:18 PM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	FW: Atomic Train
> 
> > ----------
> > From: 	Michael C. Baker[SMTP:mcbaker@lanl.gov]
> > Reply To: 	Ans-pie
> > Sent: 	Tuesday, May 11, 1999 4:52 PM
> > To: 	Multiple recipients of list ans-pie
> > Subject: 	Fwd: Atomic Train
> > 
> > >
> > >Just Call It 'Hazardous Material Train' 
> > >By Lisa de Moraes
> > >
> > >Tuesday, May 11, 1999; Page C07 
> > >When an NBC spokeswoman said two weeks ago, shortly after the massacre
> at a suburban Denver high school, that she was sure the head of the
> network's Denver station would find, "as we did," that "Atomic Train" is
> > "appropriate to air," she was wrong on two counts. 
> > >He didn't and the network didn't, either. 
> > >NBC is reediting the miniseries, about a train carrying a nuclear bomb
> > and nuclear waste that derails and blows up in Denver. It has also
> yanked its
> > >scary it-could-happen on-air promo campaign and is taking the
> > extraordinary step of running a disclaimer at the beginning of the
> miniseries on Sunday night. 
> > >An NBC spokeswoman insists nonetheless that the actions have nothing to
> > do with heightened sensitivities after the Colorado shootings, or the
> > concerns of nearly every trade group, association and society that has
> anything to do with nuclear materials, nuclear weapons or the railway
> industry--some of whom were in contact with NBC executives--that the movie
> is grossly
> > >inaccurate and intended to frighten the public out of its collective
> wits. 
> > >"To my knowledge, no one at NBC in the decision-making process has
> > received any requests by outside agencies to change the miniseries," a
> network spokeswoman said. 
> > >The official word out of NBC is that executives looked at the project
> and
> > >saw what they hadn't seen for all the months and months that "Atomic
> > Train" was in development, in production or in the can--that it
> contained
> > >"incorrect information." 
> > >"As a broadcaster we didn't want to go out there with incorrect
> information.
> > >We embrace this as fiction and want people to take it for what it is,
> but
> > we don't want to be misleading," the spokeswoman said. 
> > >So the project is being retooled to change any reference to nuclear
> waste
> > to "hazardous material." And the disclaimer at the start of the program
> will
> > >state: "The events in this miniseries are pure fiction. They are not
> > based on fact and we do not suggest or imply in any way that these
> events could actually occur." 
> > >That would fly in the face of NBC's aggressive campaign for the
> > miniseries, such as the full-page ad in the current issue of People
> magazine: 
> > >"Where will you be when disaster strikes? Trains carry nuclear
> materials
> > >through America's back yards all the time. What if one day . . .
> > something went wrong." 
> > >NBC did pull its similar on-air ad campaign, says the network rep. 
> > >Trains have not transported nuclear weapons since 1985, various
> > associations have told the network. They are transported by truck and
> always disarmed.
> > >(In the miniseries, the bomb is sneaked on board.) And nuclear waste is
> > >never transported with nuclear arms--hence the change to "hazardous
> > >material." 
> > >Scott Peterson, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which
> > >represents utilities with nuclear power plants, said members had been
> > >calling ever since trailers for the miniseries began appearing on NBC.
> > >Peterson said the trade association was telling members to inform
> > concerned callers of the "outstanding transportation record" for spent
> nuclear
> > >fuel--more than 30 years and nearly 3,000 shipments without a single
> > release of radioactive material. And the president of the Idaho chapter
> of the
> > >Health Physics Society wrote to NBC suggesting the network state that
> the movie is entirely fictional and there was no intent to imply the
> scenario
> > >actually could happen, the Associated Press reports. 
> > >In the miniseries, the bomb-laden train leaves from Idaho. That led a
> > health physicist at at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
> > Laboratory to accuse NBC of timing the broadcast to coincide with
> nuclear waste shipments recently sent from Idaho through Denver to the
> Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. 
> > >While executives from two of the broadcast networks were among those
> > >attending yesterday's White House confab to stem youth violence, a new
> > study says that one out of five parents in America is not even aware
> that
> > content ratings are currently displayed on almost all televised
> entertainment
> > >programming. Fewer than half know that content ratings are displayed at
> > the beginning of each sitcom. And the use of the content ratings system
> by
> > >parents to screen shows for their children has actually declined over
> the
> > >past year. 
> > >Even so, 60 percent of parents say they are very concerned that their
> > >children are exposed to too much violence on television.
> > >
> > 
> > _____________________________________
> > 
> > Michael C. Baker
> > Los Alamos National Laboratory
> > Mail Stop J594, Los Alamos, NM 87545
> > 
> > mcbaker@lanl.gov             
> > 
> > (505) 667-7334 (phone)
> > (505) 665-8346 (fax)  
> > (505) 665-9800 ext.1045409 (pager)
> > _____________________________________
> > 
> 
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html