Awakened Woman e-magazine
Preventing a nuclear accident with y2kHelen Caldicott speaking at Real Goods Alternative Energy Store, Ukiah, CA, June 26,1999
Well it's lovely to be here, on such a glorious day and such a glorious place, surrounded by flowers and solar energy. And it really is a model of what the world could be, where we could use all the energy of the sun and nothing else, and that could spread throughout the world. Solar energy now is cheaper by far than coal and just can't compare with nuclear. Nuclear is incredibly expensive. But the government's hooked on nuclear energy. The Dept. of Energy calls solar energy "soft" energy, it's rather effeminate. And they callnuclear energy "hard" energy, and that's sort of a testosterone factor. And that's why they proceed apace with nuclear energy.We're in a terrible mess! There are 103 nuclear power plants in this country. There are 433 of them in the world and we're nearly coming up to January 1, 2000. You all know about y2k, do you not?
Well there are problems with nuclear power plants. Each one needs a million gallons a minute of cooling water a minute to keep the incredibly hot radioactive core cool. Now in each reactor in this country, in particular, there are some embedded chips and software and hardware to keep the cooling water circulating. The rest of the reactor is an analogue system, where you press dials and turn levers and the like. . .
If you read the story about Three-Mile Island, which I've talked about in this book, the operators got it all wrong and there was a tag over one of the levers that they didn't see and it was total human error.
Incidentally, Three Mile Island is 13 miles from Hershey's chocolate where they produce alot of the milk for the chocolate. We do not have the official measurements on the ground of radioactivity there: strontium 90, cesium, plutonium and the like. It concentrates thousands of times in the grass, this radiation. Thousands more times in the cattle, in their milk and then it goes into the chocolates. And then of course it concentrates thousands more times in human breast milk, irradiating the breast as it goes through the breast and then gets into the babies who are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to radiation than adults. Therefore, do not ever eat Hershey's chocolate.
The accident at Three Mile Island was far bigger than anyone ever realized. I've got a notarized statement from Jane Rickover. Do you remember Admiral Rickover, that rather wicked old man, who left the Navy and filled the seas up with nuclear submarines? And helped initiate civilian nuclear power? He was Jimmy Carter's mentor. Jimma loved him. Jimmy's a good guy, but he doesn't go quite far enough, but he's a good hearted guy. But Admiral Rickover convinced Jimmy to cover up the data of the accident at Three-Mile Island and Rickover said at the time, If everyone knew how serious that accident was, it would have meant the end of nuclear power forever. Towards the end of his life he recanted and told his daughter-in- law he rued the day that he got Carter to cover up the data about Three Mile Island. So, there was a major accident, there's a lot of cancer in the people around there, cows were being born with two heads. . .
So, we've got to know that there is a conspiracy out there and the conspiracy is against the people. And the conspiracy is for the corporations, who want to make as much money as they possibly can. I don't understand that greed, which is an addiction. How many chandeliers can you have in one house? How many cars can you drive? How big does your house have to be, and have to be heated all through the winter? What a ridiculous notion to want to get rich. Money is the root of all evil, it's more difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. When you come here to America, all you hear, in the sound waves, the radio, the television, is how much you can save by buying this, this and this. Life is not about money. Life is about Life. Life is about the creation. Life is about evolution, about rhinoceroses, and elephants and lions, and tigers and monarch butterflies. And flowers. . .
Let's get back to nuclear power. All your nuclear reactors are in big trouble, because every year or two they remove one third of the spent fuel rods which are stinking, radioactively, thermally hot. A spent fuel rod is half an inch wide and 12 feet long. If you take it out of the reactor and stand next to it for a couple of seconds, you'll get a lethal dose of gamma radiation and die in two days with your hair falling out, tremendous headaches, bleeding from the gums and bleeding from every orifice, the rectum, the vagina and the like. So it's because they're so thermally hot, they have to be stored in what's called a swimming pool, euphemistically, beside the reactor. And the swimming pools are becoming chock-a-block full of spent fuel rods. They have to be moved somewhere because if they're not they can't keep fissioning uranium and making more radioactive waste. So, they have before Congress a bill called the Mobile-Chernobyl Bill. They wanted to transport 3,000 huge carts of radioactive fuel rods every year for the next 30 years through your towns and cities and on your railways. You know, you're driving along and you say, Oh, there's a cask of spent fuel beside my car. Oh, the truck's about to have an accident. Oh, it fell over, burst open and out comes the radioactive stuff, you breathe it in and get thyroid cancer years later. And they found a mountain in Nevada called Yucca Mountain, transected by about 30 earthquake faults, one of them called The Ghost Dance. They thought that was a great place. Nevada has no nuclear power plants, 80% of its people don't want the country's radioactive waste, but they dug big holes and were going to put the waste in there. Then suddenly a scientist called Bowman at Los Alamos lab said, Wait a minute, plutonium lasts for half a million years, ten pounds is critical mass. If you get two half hemispheres of plutonium and put them together, five pounds each, it blows up. You have a nuclear explosion! He said as the casks rust, out comes the plutonium, leaks down, and ten pounds will collect in a crevasse and blow the top off the mountain, and all the radioactive waste to the four winds. And another scientist said, Yeah, we hadn't thought of that. So, they decided not to put the waste in the mountain. They built a parking lot outside the mountain. And the answer to America's radioactive waste problem is to put the spent fuel on the parking lot outside the mountain. Q.E.D. that's it.
I've started a new political party in Australia called Our Common Future, named after the book written by the United Nations, edited by G. Holland Brutland, about sustainable development. I don't like that word. I think it's an oxymoron. You can't have development which is growth, growth, growth and have it sustainable with the limited resources in the world. But anyway, I'd like to be Prime Minister. I don't think it'll happen, but it's worth a go. And if I get to be Prime Minister, we are going to be a nation that retrofits every single house and building in Australia to be a solar building. . . And then we're going to export solar energy to the whole of the rest of an energy hungry world in the developing worlds to the north of us. Indonesia, the Phillipines, China, India. . . the whole thing. And you know what? We might get to be richer than you guys. Well, I'm not talking about money really, but everyone talks about the blasted GDP or the Gross National Product. Who cares about that? But it will employ a lot of Australians. Now, if you were smart, you'd take the lead and pre-empt us. But if I get to be Prime Minister before you do it, then you'll lose the race. . .
I don't know what's going to happen with y2k. Nobody does, but when I was on a national radio program the other day in America, two sort of nerdish computer programmers rang in and said, You sound like a Christian millenialist.Well, A, I'm not a Christian and B, I read all the data, and it's pretty scary. So I said, Well, tell me, you're computer programmers, do you know what's going to happen? And they both said, No. So the only sure thing we know when we hit the year 2000 is we don't know what's going to happen. But it's possible the grid might go down.
Now there are five regional grid systems in America and I know a man who worked with Bill Gates who is working on the software of the Northeast grid. He said it's a nightmare. Where are many of the nuclear power plants in America? They're in the Northeast -- Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut -- and they're dangerous. So if they lose the external electricity supply, they lose the cooling water to cool the core. So, if on January 1, the grid shuts down, and there is darkness. And imagine it's going to be January the first, the middle of winter. Think of New York. Eight million people, old ladies on the 25th floor, no electricity, no elevators, no heat, no food because it all comes from California via truck and the like, and the nuclear power plants without electricity. They'll melt down in a few minutes.. . .
If you read the website of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. . .Two years ago they were saying, the year 2000, y2k, fine. But they're getting more and more nervous. They've told FEMA now to stockpile potassium iodide tablets. Now, does anyone know why that would be so? Do you know radioactive iodine is made in the nuclear power plants? It's very volatile and gaseous. It escapes with a nuclear meltdown. The only gland in the body that uses iodine is the thyroid gland, particularly children's thyroids. The thyroid controls the rate of metabolism. . . But if there's a melt down, the thyroid goes, ooh, iodine and it sucks it up and the iodine concentrates here, irradiating a few cells, and years later - 5, 10, 15 - you get a lump in your thyroid. . . So, when you take potassium iodide tablets, which are not radioactive, the thyroid becomes saturated with iodine so it won't take up the radioactive iodine. After Chernobyl, which was a result of gross human error by some idiots who were running the reactor, in Poland they gave the children potassium iodide. There's no thyroid cancer in the children of Poland, but in other countries -- Belarus, the Ukraine and the like, over 1,000 children have had their thyroid glands removed because they've had thyroid cancer. That's never been heard of in the history of medicine.
So, the NRC in your country has told the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who used to organize us for nuclear war. . . Do you remember the book, With Enough Shovels. They said, don't worry about nuclear war. With enough shovels to go around, we're all going to make it. And you know the missiles only take 20-30 minutes to get here from Russia. So their plan was officially, that you get out your shovel and you dig a hole, six feet long and three feet wide and I don't know how deep, you get in the hole and you put doors on top, so you carry around a screwdriver at all times to take the doors off, and you put dirt on top. And that will save you from a nuclear war? And they said, it's the dirt that does it. And that honestly was your safety plan for a nuclear war. So now, FEMA is having to stockpile potassium iodide. When I heard that, my blood went cold. There are 432 reactors in the world, 67 in the ex-Soviet Union. They don't even have emergency diesel generators. And their electricity supply is at great risk.
So what are we going to do?
The answer is simple. We get solar panels at each power plant, and wind generators and we make electricity that's reliable and store it in batteries so that it'll keep the cooling system going. Fancy having a solar panel to make sure a nuclear power plant doesn't melt down, but you know that's the truth. I went and lobbied in Congress a few months ago about y2k. Upstairs they're in the gilded chamber impeaching the president for certain sexual activities. As if all the others haven't had the same sexual activities themselves. Before I was menopausal I used to go, well I mean I still go, but when I was young and quite good looking and had some hormones in my vessels, I used to go and lobby in Congress and they'd proposition me! One man said to me, "You know you have beautiful eyes?" And I'd say, this is a gene and this is an alpha particle. And he'd say, "Would you have a steak with me tonight?" And I'd say, and this is a mutation and this is how you get cancer. And he'd say, "Will you stay the night with me?" And it happened on numerous occasions. They were just impeaching the president for what they all do anyway. So it was a farce!
But, downstairs, in the dusty old basement full of dirty old boxes, were the y2k committees of the House and the Senate. They were literally throwing their hands in the air, saying We Don't Know What to do! And I talked to John Koskinen in charge of y2k in the White House, and he said, "We don't want to create panic." I said, what do you mean? And he said, virtually, we don't tell the American people the truth because we don't want you to be panicked. I know as a doctor that there's no way to tell a patient that she's just a little tiny bit pregnant. There's no way to tell a patient they've got a little tiny cancer. You have to say, I'm sorry you've got cancer. There's no way to tell a man, and I had to do this, that his baby's dead. No way to not tell him. You have say, "Your baby's just died." And it's a terrible feeling to have to tell a man his baby's died. I felt like running away. So people are scared in the Congress and the White House to tell you the truth because obviously. . . I went through two weeks of incredible anger when I found out about it. And I was blasting the hell out of the city council people about my septic system and my electricity and they didn't know why I was angry. And I thought, I'm abnormally angry. But the stages of grief, you know from Kubler-Ross, are shock and disbelief, followed by very deep depression, followed by anger and then finally acceptance.
If you had FDR sitting right now beside the fire, with a microphone, and he said, "Men and women of America, I have some things to tell you." And he led you through it, and gave you the alternatives, and helped you with your grief, and you had a real leader, then America would be stable. But what worries me is the press is just starting to get it. Two days ago the NY Times had two full page articles on Y2K, in Russia. They're not talking about America yet, but they will. And as the people start to get it, and start stockpiling food and taking their money out of the bank, the Treasury has printed billions more dollars in case there's a run on the bank. There's going to be panic and pandemonium. And there are 300 million hand guns in America. And what do some people in this country do when they get frightened? They shoot.
Now let me tell you the next thing. What they could do is institute a Marshall Plan, like after the Second World War, and it's easy. The military, with much less effort than they put into Kosova, could retro- and backfit every nuclear power plant in the world with a solar panel and a wind generator and hydroelectricity. It wouldn't take long, we've got time, a few months. So there is a solution to that.
Now, to the weapons. Do you know that America has 2,500 hydrogen bombs targeted on Russia at this point in time, and China, ready to go at press of a button. They take half an hour to get there. They are on hair-trigger alert, do you know that? Well, the cold war's over, the Berlin Wall came down, Gorbachev did his thing, we're friendly with the Soviet Union, but they still have them targeted! Hair trigger alert!! And because America's done it, Russia says, Well, bugger you! We'll have you targeted with hair trigger alert. So, you're targeted with 2,000 bombs. Do you know it takes 1,000 bombs blowing up 100 cities to create a pall of black radioactive smoke around the earth, and that's nuclear winter and the end of life on earth? One thousand . . .there are about 5,000 bombs ready to go at the press of a button. A few years ago, in 1995 . . . the American missile with a Norwegian weather satellite on it, and didn't tell the Russians they were going to do it and it was an American satellite. The Russians . . . radioed back to their early warning room and this is the first time ever in history, the football was opened, the computer to launch a nuclear war. There were two generals standing over Yeltsin's shoulder saying, press them, Mr. President. And they had three minutes to decide whether or not to destroy life on the planet. And he nearly did. And at the last minute, the missile veered off and they realized it wasn't an American attack.
This happens frequently.
Now, what's the biggest computerized system in the world? The Pentagon. And where do they get a lot of their imbedded chips and computers? To save money they bought them off the shelf, from vendors who disappeared, they're not around. To find all these chips is impossible. The weapons are smart weapons because they have got embedded computers in them. The Pentagon is miles behind in working out where they are with y2k, and then, their Early Warning System. They've got satellites in the sky with infrared detectors that pick up the heat coming from the missile as it's launched. They've got over the horizon radars, all over the place, Greenland, Massachusetts, seeing the weapons coming in. They've got a thing called Command Control Communications and Intelligence. It's complex, but you've got to know it. It's all computerized. Now, before Kosovo, Russia and America said, look, this is a bit serious. Let's get a joint Early Warning Room. Say, ooh, see that missile coming in to land on New York, don't worry, we launched that by mistake, but please, please don't launch all your missiles, or, See that missile coming in, it's not really a missile, the computers made a mistake. But when Kosovo happened the Russians got really angry and they walked away.
What's Russia doing about its y2k situation with nuclear reactors and weapons? They haven't even touched it. The French think y2k is an American plot. The French are taking all their nuclear reactors off line for four days, which won't fix anything if they lose their electricity supply, and 80% comes from nuclear power.
So, what do we do about the weapons? You do two things. You decouple them. You take the bomb off the missile. But the Pentagon calls that "de-mating" because they like to have a sexual connotation. De-mate the missile. And de-alert them. You can stop the 10 pounds of plutonium, with a wire, so the bomb won't blow up. We've got time to de-couple and de-alert all the weapons before January 1st.
Now, if we do that, what do we do then? We get rid of all the bombs and we have total abolition of nuclear weapons, so my grandchildren, who are 7, 6 and 5, don't grow up with a threat of impending death every day and every night. I'm going to try and give Mr. Clinton the chance to be the greatest president the world has ever known, and it's easy. He can fly over to Boris and say, "Boris, sign here," and he'll sign it, to abolish nuclear weapons in Russia and in America. But then everyone says, But ooh, what about India and Pakistan? Doesn't matter about them. They might blow up Delhi or Karachi, but they can't destroy the planet.
Furthermore, it's America that has led the arm's race at every step of the way. Russia stupidly, blindly copied and followed. If Russia and America abolish weapons, China said she would. France will. Britain has already started to. Israel, who has 300 bombs, will need its arm twisted behind its back, but it will do it. And it's easy to control India and Pakistan. If that doesn't happen, and America right now is designing and building new nuclear weapons in a program called Nuclear Stockpile Stewardship, to keep scientists happy at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, the nuclear priesthood. I predict in ten years, 20 more countries will have nuclear weapons. That's called lateral proliferation. So it's this country, full of noble, kind hearted generous people who desperately want to do the right thing, like you, who will decide whether or not the earth lives or dies.
So, we've got a chance to close down all the reactors in the world and abolish all the weapons in the next six months. Isn't that incredibly exciting? Do you have the passion to do it! Do you have the passion to go in and take over Diane Fienstein's office and lock the door, put your babies on her desk, change their diapers and say, "I'm not leaving this office, Diane, until you watch a video tape about nuclear y2k, because I held a conference in Washington on y2k. I've got the video tape, I'll tell you later how to get a hold of it. And show the video tape to Diane because she doesn't know. Most of them are practicing psychic numbing. You know those monkeys? Can't hear, can't see, can't talk. Barbara Boxer is a good person. She probably doesn't understand this either. Who are your congress people? Go in and physically take over their office. And be prepared to go to jail. What else is there? We're talking about your children, your grandchildren, my grandchildren. . .
Now, when we've eradicated nuclear weapons, which we have the opportunity to do. I mean you've never known an opportunity greater than the one that presents itself right now. I want you to rise up like noble people! You can take over that Congress! It's your Congress. They are your representatives. You are their leaders. Take it over! And if they arrest you, arrest the police. Because the police have to be protecting you, the people. We the People. Of the people, for the people and BY the people. And the corporations, they don't want to be blown up in a nuclear war either. And they don't want nuclear meltdown, so maybe they'll come on side with you. Cause they presently run the Congress. . .
Now, you're the leaders. And there are enough people in this gathering today to save the planet, but you've got six months. And if you're victorious and get rid of the bombs and close the reactors down, then you do the cars and the solar panels, and stop the refrigerators and help the Chinese with alternative energy sources. And you grow your own food and you get rid of Monsanto and genetically modified food and you don't kill the monarch butterflies. And all the rest! The whole thing! You've got enough passion in your souls to do it! And if I've done what I've done, you can do it too.
So, good luck and I'm going to be watching you. And then you can fly your flag with incredible pride. And I'll fly the Australian flag beside it. Bye.
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