Where I Stand — Hank Greenspun: Chernobyl should teach us a lesson

Friday, June 15, 2001 | 9:15 a.m.

Sun founder Hank Greenspun's last Where I Stand column was written in 1989, the year he passed away. In the following weeks Classic Sun will feature columns written by Hank that still relate to today's headlines. In this column, written on April 30, 1986, Hank examines the danger of nuclear power plants in the wake of the tragedy in Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union.

The devil unleashed.

When the first atom bomb was atmospherically exploded, many scientists watched with awe and wondered what kind of demon had been let loose on mankind. The people were assured it was safe.

As nuclear experimentation and use expanded, we were lulled into a false sense of security by experts who promised there was no danger in the construction of nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants.

We had our own "accidents" and were lucky that casualties were held to a bare minimum.

The same is not so with the gigantic nuclear accident that has occurred in Russia with the reported death toll of 2,100 people -- although casualties were less, according to figures the Russians have given to world news sources. No one yet knows what the final tally will be, as the fire is still burning and people are being exposed to radioactive fallout. It might continue burning until it reaches the Earth's core.

All the assurances that the Department of Energy gave us that there is no danger and we can handle any emergency are false. We never believed it, and now less than ever. They have changed their opinions and evaluations too many times.

The United States has permitted nuclear reactor plants to be built on major earthquake faults. How perilous -- how asinine -- can that be?

A plant blows in Russia with 2,100 people dead and we still don't know what the Diablo reactor plant in Southern California, right next to the ocean, could do.

The Department of Energy permits these things without any true knowledge of what it will do in the future. If any of our congressmen tell us that we have to wait to see what assessments the DOE will make, we say that is humbug.

Russian scientists, I'm certain, assured their people it was safe, and now many are dead. There's no nuclear energy that is safe. We know that if it doesn't totally eradicate humankind it will produce cancer and leukemia. And the nuclear waste will contaminate land and water for thousands of years.

Why do they fool around with it? There are more acceptable forms of energy -- solar energy, oil and coal.

Do we have to depend on this hellish energy source that cannot be controlled?

A Department of Energy official, James Vaughan, acting assistant energy secretary, sat before a Congressional group and was asked if there have been any emissions during nuclear testing at Nevada Test site. He said to the best of his knowledge there hadn't. He was giving false testimony.

He went on to explain that was weapon testing and not in his field, but the program was so carefully monitored that nothing could happen.

There have been emissions and venting quite a few times.

A congressional committee, hurriedly convened to probe the effects of the Russian disaster and to establish safeguards for American nuclear plants, questioned Vaughan about U.S. safety standards. He assured the representatives that everything was monitored and was safe.

His assurances were erroneous, and all I could think is that the fate of the world hangs in the testimony of that fat bureaucrat who dismissed the questions of the probers as if they were insulting to his intelligence.

He was insulting the intelligence of the people of Nevada and Utah who have suffered death, leukemia and other forms of cancer by the continued assurances of the Department of Energy.

The devil is in our backyard. No one is fully informed where nuclear energy is concerned.

In the United States there are 95 nuclear power plants licensed and operational. And there isn't a man alive who can guarantee against accidents of the type that plagued Three Mile Island or the terrible disaster in Russia.

It becomes increasingly urgent that effective steps be taken to halt the spread of nuclear power plants for peace or nuclear weapons for war.

The alternative is the extinction of mankind and the destruction of this planet.

If we are going to leave a world of peace and well-being for our children, we have to end all experimentation with nuclear fission and find safer, more dependable methods of producing energy.