History: Gregory Minor, 62, fought nuclear power

["Michael P. Grissom" <mpg1@coastside.net>]

radsafe'ers,

The following appeared in the August 1, 1999 edition of the San Jose
Mercury News:

--------------------
Gregory Minor, 62,
fought nuclear power

By Maya Suryaraman
Mercury News Staff Writer

====================
Mr. Minor and two
other midlevel
engineers quit GE in
protest in 1976.
====================

Gregory Charles Minor, a San Jose engineer who made
national headlines in 1976 when he and two colleagues
quit General Electric's reactor division here to protest
nuclear power, has died at his retirement home in
Telluride, Colo.

According to friends, Mr. Minor, 62, died at his home on
July 20 of leukemia, which had been diagnosed in early
June, shortly after he moved from the Bay Area to
Telluride for retirement.

For a brief period in the 1970s, Mr. Minor, Richard
Hubbard and Dale Bridenbaugh were at the center of a
swirling controversy over the future of nuclear power in
California. After they resigned their jobs as midlevel
engineering managers at GE's Nuclear Energy Division
in San Jose, they joined the campaign to pass
Proposition 15, a statewide initiative opposing nuclear
power. The initiative ultimately failed.

They also testified before Congress that many of the
nation's nuclear power plants were so unsafe that at
least one major disaster, if not more, was likely by the
year 2000.

Shunned by colleagues

In their new role as dissidents who had turned their
backs on successful corporate careers, the three found
themselves embraced by environmental activists but
attacked by the nuclear power industry - and shunned
by many former colleagues.

"Of course, we lost friends," Hubbard said. "At that
time, a corporation was like a second family. A lot of
our social life had been with (coworkers), but that
ended rather abruptly."

...[snip]

Their firm [MHB Technical Associates] was also hired
as the technical advisors on the 1979 movie, "The
China Syndrome," which portrayed a near-catastrophe
at a fictional nuclear power plant. In 1979, they moved
MHB Technical Associates to an office on Hamilton
Avenue in San Jose.

...[snip]

Time also brought vindication of their position,
Hubbard said. The same year that "The China
Syndrome" was released, the Three Mile Island
nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania experienced a
partial meltdown. Today, only a few nuclear power
plants are still under construction in the United States.

"We never regretted our decision," Hubbard said.
"Subsequent events, from Three Mile Island to
Chernobyl, have really shown there were problems."

...[snip]

A native of Fresno [California, Central Valley], Mr.
Minor graduated from the University of California-Berkeley
with an electrical engineering degree in 1960. He went to
work for GE that same year and earned [a] master of science
[degree] at Stanford University in 1966.

While at GE's reactor division in San Jose, he managed
an engineering group that worked on new designs for
reactor controls, safety systems and control rooms.

...[snip]

[Those interested in contacting the reporter who
wrote this quite long obituary, only an extract
of which is shown above, may be interested in
writing Maya at:

msuryaraman@sjmercury.com

or calling at:

(408) 920-5505.]


Michael P. Grissom
Phone:  (650) 712-1718
Email:  mpg1@coastside.net



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