Fizzling the Plutonium Economy: Origins of the April 1977 Carter Administration Fuel Cycle Policy Transition

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Fizzling the Plutonium Economy: Origins of the April 1977 Carter Administration Fuel Cycle Policy Transition Fizzling the Plutonium Economy: Origins of the April 1977 Carter Administration Fuel Cycle Policy Transition The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Williams, Peter King. 2010. Fizzling the Plutonium Economy: Origins of the April 1977 Carter Administration Fuel Cycle Policy Transition. Master's thesis, Harvard University, Extension School. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37367548 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Fizzling the Plutonium Economy: Origins of the April 1977 Carter Administration Fuel Cycle Policy Transition Peter Williams A Thesis in the Field of History for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University May 2010 © 2010 Peter Williams Abstract This study examines the scientific advocacy that shaped President Carter’s April 1977 policy decision to block the domestic implementation of so-called “plutonium economy” technologies, and thereby mandate the use of an “open” or “once–through” fuel cycle for U.S. nuclear power reactors. This policy transition was controversial, causing friction with U.S. allies, with the nuclear power industry, and with Congress. Early in his presidential campaign, Carter criticized the excessive federal financial commitment to developing plutonium-based reactors and adopted the view that the weapons proliferation risks of plutonium economy technologies were serious and needed to be addressed. President Carter announced his intention to implement these policy views through statements in April 1977 that defined his administration’s policy to forgo so-called “plutonium economy” technologies. This study traces the origins of President Carter’s once-through fuel cycle policy via a close analysis of the networks that channeled policy advice on this matter to Carter. A key finding is that Carter’s opposition to the plutonium economy technology program represented a purposefully nuanced compromise within the larger context of his nuclear power and national energy policies. While Carter was very much the author of this position, key scientific advocacy efforts framed the policy debate and reinforced his confidence in the technical, economic, and diplomatic feasibility of his fuel cycle policy. Frontispiece © Robert Mankoff/The New Yorker Collection/www.cartoonbank.com iv Dedication For my family, with love – This work is as much a product of your support and encouragement as my effort. v Acknowledgements First and foremost, I thank my wife Lisa and my daughters Erica and Grace for their support and forbearance during the time that I worked on this proJect. I have drawn heavily on reservoirs of good will that I hope now to refill. I offer thanks for the supervision and indulgence of Dr. Donald Ostrowski and Professor Everett Mendelsohn in guiding me through the process of selecting a suitable topic and then completing this proJect. It has been my great good fortune to meet both of you. Thanks also to Peter O’Malley and Kerry Buchannan for their advice and assistance at critical points in my transit through the ALM program. Thanks also to my fellow ALM program students. I gained insight and encouragement from our monthly group sessions with Don Ostrowski. It would have been more difficult to glean new insights into this topic had I not been able to interview many of the protagonists. I would therefore like to heartily thank the following busy people for so generously agreeing to be interviewed and for encouraging me in my task: Dean Abrahamson; Peter Bourne; Joe Browder; Chris Brown; Albert Carnesale; Thomas Cochran; Stuart Eizenstat; David Freeman; Richard Gardner; Spurgeon Keeny; Joe Nye; Gus Speth; Steven Stark; Lynn Weaver; and Mason Willrich. While I benefitted enormously from the insights I derived from my interactions with all of the people mentioned above, any error in interpreting or presenting their views is my own. In this context, it is important to mention that I was unable to arrange interviews, despite attempts to vi do so, with several persons significant to these events. The most notable such omission was President Carter, whom could undoubtedly shed much light on his influences and motivations in these matters. I have had to therefore rely on analysis and inference to form my conclusions and build my narrative, as is usually the case in historical scholarship. I apologize to President Carter in advance for any misJudgments that derive from this approach. A brief encounter with Professor David Hackett Fischer was decisive in influencing the structure of this work. In following Professor Fischer’s example, I wrote a series of analytical appendices to help make sense of persons, events, and connections before I made final decisions about how to structure the narrative chapters. I therefore thank Professor Fischer for his example and advice. I would also like to thank David Stanhope, Jay Hakes, and Bert Nason of the Carter Library in Atlanta for their hospitality and assistance. Thanks particularly to Mr. Nason for helping me make the most of research opportunities while there. After meeting Mr. Hakes, I enJoyed reading his recent book, A Declaration of Energy Independence, which educated me on the history of the idea of energy independence in U.S. political discourse. I spent many productive hours in Harvard’s Widener Library and thank the staff there for many episodes of assistance and for maintaining such a magnificent research resource. vii Table of Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................................vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................viii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... xiv I. Introduction..............................................................................................................................................1 Carter Campaign Platform on Nuclear Power..................................................4 Ford Administration Response on Reprocessing Policy..............................9 The Ford/MITRE Study........................................................................................... 10 Carter Nuclear Policy Statements of April 1977 .......................................... 13 Rethinking the Origins of Carter Administration Fuel Cycle Policy..... 18 II. Background to the Plutonium Economy Policy Debate..................................................... 21 The Nuclear Subgovernment ................................................................................ 26 NASA Challenge and the 1962 Report to the President ............................ 28 The Great Bandwagon and the Plutonium Economy ................................. 37 Nixon Administration Budget Contests............................................................ 39 President Nixon Promotes the LMFBR............................................................. 41 Emergence of Opposition to AEC Reactor Programs.................................. 43 Adversary Science and Technology Assessment.......................................... 48 viii Dismantling the AEC................................................................................................. 50 1973 Oil Shock Effects ............................................................................................. 52 The U.S. Enrichment Capacity Crunch .............................................................. 54 1974 Indian Test ........................................................................................................ 56 Issue Networks and the Nuclear Subgovernment....................................... 57 III. The Anti-Plutonium Issue Network.......................................................................................... 60 NRDC Origins ............................................................................................................... 62 SIPI versus AEC Lawsuit ......................................................................................... 64 NRDC Plutonium Economy Policy Analysis.................................................... 67 Contesting the Uranium Shortage Assumption ............................................ 68 LMFBR Program Misallocates Federal Resources....................................... 70 “Hot Particle” Theory of Plutonium Toxicity ................................................. 71 Plutonium Diversion and Civil Liberties.......................................................... 72 Confederates in Anti-Plutonium Economy Advocacy ................................ 74 NRDC Intervention in LMFBR and GESMO EIS Proceedings................... 79 NRDC Role in Framing Plutonium Policy Choices in Early 1975 .......... 83 NRDC Involvement in the Carter Campaign................................................... 85 IV. Ford Foundation Energy Policy Project 1972-1974.........................................................
Recommended publications
  • THE NATIONAL FORUM the National CFIDS Foundation
    THE NATIONAL FORUM The National CFIDS Foundation Vol. 27, No. 1 – Summer 2021 NCF ANNOUNCES NEW GRANT RECIPIENT By Alan Cocchetto, NCF Medical Director April 22, 2021 – Copyright 2021 The National CFIDS Foundation is pleased to announce their latest research grant recipient, Dr. Jack Wands. Dr. Wands is a Professor of Gastroenterology and Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Wands' proposal which is titled, “Aspartate asparaginyl beta- hydroxylase (ASPH) as an etiologic factor in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)” has received $65,000 from the National CFIDS Foundation. Dr. Wands has over 600 peer-reviewed medical journal articles in publication. According to the Foundation, there is evidence that ASPH may be accumulating in the cells of CFS patients. As such, this can dramatically impact the body's response to oxidative stress and hypoxia. Wands has planned both in-vitro as well as in-vivo studies in an attempt to understand the upregulation of ASPH on cell migration and signaling through various cellular pathways following exposure to an oxidative injury. Wands will also be comparing CFS patient samples with those of hepatic cancer patients with cancer-related fatigue. In addition, Wands has evidence that ASPH overexpression may be a risk factor for the early development of cancer which may be associated with CFS before the disease becomes clinically apparent or in other words, CFS as a pre-malignancy. Wands has observed this in pancreatic cancer patients. This is of importance since the National Cancer Institute has previously reported that CFS has been associated with increases in pancreatic cancer.
    [Show full text]
  • The Online Version of Catalogue 32 Does Not Contain the Printed
    Please note: The online version of Catalogue 32 does not contain the printed version’s 172 black and white illustrations—this is because the illustrations in the printed catalogue were submitted to the printer as hard copy, rather than electronic files. Future catalogues will have digitized illustrations, so that their online versions will be exact counterparts of the printed ones. Catalogue 32 CLASSICS OF SCIENCE & MEDICINE With 172 black & white and 6 color illustrations Table of Contents Science & Medicine Page 5 Recent Books, History & Reference 80 Norman Publishing 83 About Our Cover. The cover of Catalogue 32 features the following: (1) No. 198, a beautifully executed bronze bust of Ambroise Paré by the 19th century French sculptor Emile Picault (ca. 1893); (2) No. 109, Domenico Fontana’s Della transportatione dell’obelisco (1590), a classic of Renaissance engineering describing the removal of the Vatican obelisk to its present site in the Piazza of St. Peter; (3) No. 127, George Robert Gray’s Genera of Birds (1849), with magniWcent plates by David William Mitchell, Joseph Wolf, Edward Lear and others; (4) On the Fabric of the Human Body (1998), the English translation of the Wrst book of Andreas 1543 1 4 Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica ( ); 5 (5) No. 112, Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea (1823), John Franklin’s clas- 23 sic account of his Wrst Arctic expedition of 1819–22; (6) No. 103, Oliver Byrne’s edition of The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid 6 (1847), one of the most striking and attrac- tive examples of color printing issued by the noted Victorian publisher William Pickering; and (7) No.
    [Show full text]
  • National States and International Science: a Comparative History of International Science Congresses in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Cold War United States
    National States and International Science: A Comparative History of International Science Congresses in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Cold War United States Osiris 2005 Doel, Ronald E. Department of History (and Department of Geosciences), Oregon State University Originally published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society and can be found at: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=osiris Citation: Doel, R. E. (2005). National states and international science; A comparative history of international science congresses in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Cold War United States. Osiris, 20, 49-76. Available from JSTOR website: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3655251 National States and International Science: A ComparativeHistory of International Science Congresses in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Cold WarUnited States Ronald E. Doel, Dieter Hoffmann, and Nikolai Krementsov* ABSTRACT Priorstudies of modem scientificinternationalism have been writtenprimarily from the point of view of scientists, with little regardto the influenceof the state. This studyexamines the state'srole in internationalscientific relations. States sometimes encouragedscientific internationalism;in the mid-twentiethcentury, they often sought to restrictit. The presentstudy examines state involvementin international scientific congresses, the primaryintersection between the national and interna- tional dimensionsof scientists'activities. Here we examine three comparativein- stancesin which such
    [Show full text]
  • Theodosius Dobzhansky: a Man for All Seasons
    GENERAL ARTICLE Theodosius Dobzhansky: A Man For All Seasons Francisco J Ayala In 1972, Theodosius Dobzhansky addressed the convention of Francisco J Ayala the National Association of Biology Teachers on the theme obtained his Ph D with Theodosius Dobzhansky "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolu­ in the 1960s and is tion". The title of that address (published in The American presently the Donald Bren Biology Teacher, Vol. 35, pp. 125-129) might serve as an epigram Professor of Biological of Dobzhansky's worldview and life, although it is limited in Sciences at the University of California, Irvine and a scope, for Dobzhansky believed and propounded that the impli­ member of President cations of biological evolution reach much beyond biology into Clinton's Committee of philosophy, sociology, and even socio-political issues. The Advisors on Science and place of biological evolution in human thought was, according Technology. He is a member of the U S to Dobzhansky, best expressed in a passage that he often quoted National Academy of from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "(Evolution) is a general Sciences and has been postulate to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must President and Chairman hence forward bow and which they must satisfy in order to be of the Board of the American Association for thinkable and true. Evolution is a light which illuminates all the Advancement of facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow - this is Science. He has worked what evolution is". extensively on the population ecology and The Modern Synthesis of Evolutionary Theory evolutionary genetics of Drosophila species.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs
    The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR DENNIS HAYS Interviewed by: Raymond Ewing Initial interview date: November 28, 2001 Copyright 2008 AD T TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born into a S Navy family, raised in the S and abroad niversity of Florida, Harvard niversity Clerk, Congressional Sub-Committee Office Entered the Foreign Service in 1975 Kingston, ,amaica- Consular .visa/0 Admin Officer 1977-1979 1osalynn Carter visit S Ambassadors Operations State Department2 Presidential 3isits Officer, Admin. Bureau 1979-1981 3IP visits abroad Operations 7hite House Communications Agency Iran hostage homecoming Harvard niversity- Kennedy School of 8overnment 1981-1982 Michael Dukakis President, ,unior Foreign Service Officers; Association President, American Foreign Service Officers; Association 1982-1985 Operations —Exclusive Bargaining“ issue Foreign Service Act of 1980 AID membership 1elations with Congress Board membership The —Black Dragons“ AFSA accomplishments The Foreign Service ,ournal Tandem assignments 1 Bujumbura, Burundi- Deputy Chief of Mission 1985-1988 Hutus and Tutsis ,ean-Baptista BagaAa AIDS Peace Corps Environment Foreign Missions Security 8overnment Coup S AID program SIS programs 8eorgetown, 8uyana- Deputy Chief of Mission 1988-1992 8uyanese emigration President Forbes Burnham Environment Elections Economy Border issues AmaAon 1iver development S interests ,onestown Affair 8overnment British SIA Carter Center National 7ar College 1992-1993 State Department- Coordinator
    [Show full text]
  • Emanuele Serrelli Nathalie Gontier Editors Explanation, Interpretation
    Interdisciplinary Evolution Research 2 Emanuele Serrelli Nathalie Gontier Editors Macroevolution Explanation, Interpretation and Evidence Interdisciplinary Evolution Research Volume 2 Series editors Nathalie Gontier, Lisbon, Portugal Olga Pombo, Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] About the Series The time when only biologists studied evolution has long since passed. Accepting evolution requires us to come to terms with the fact that everything that exists must be the outcome of evolutionary processes. Today, a wide variety of academic disciplines are therefore confronted with evolutionary problems, ranging from physics and medicine, to linguistics, anthropology and sociology. Solving evolutionary problems also necessitates an inter- and transdisciplinary approach, which is why the Modern Synthesis is currently extended to include drift theory, symbiogenesis, lateral gene transfer, hybridization, epigenetics and punctuated equilibria theory. The series Interdisciplinary Evolution Research aims to provide a scholarly platform for the growing demand to examine specific evolutionary problems from the perspectives of multiple disciplines. It does not adhere to one specific academic field, one specific school of thought, or one specific evolutionary theory. Rather, books in the series thematically analyze how a variety of evolutionary fields and evolutionary theories provide insights into specific, well-defined evolutionary problems of life and the socio-cultural domain. Editors-in-chief of the series are Nathalie Gontier and Olga Pombo. The
    [Show full text]
  • Challenging Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Findings Robert M
    Georgia State University College of Law Reading Room Law Library Student-Authored Works Law Library 12-1-2011 Challenging Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Findings Robert M. Berryman, P.E. Georgia State University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/lib_student Part of the Law Commons Institutional Repository Citation Berryman,, Robert M. P.E., "Challenging Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Findings" (2011). Law Library Student-Authored Works. 34. https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/lib_student/34 This Article was created by a Georgia State University College of Law student for the Advanced Legal Research class. It has been preserved in its original form, and may no longer reflect the current law. It has been uploaded to the Digital Archive @ GSU in a free and open access format for historical purposes. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Challenging Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Findings - LibGuides at Georgia State University College of Law Challenging Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Findings Guide Information Last Updated: Jan 24, 2012 Guide Index Home Guide URL: http://libguides.law.gsu.edu/content.php?pid=258191 Primary Sources Tags: advanced_legal_research Secondary Sources RSS: Subscribe to Updates via RSS Interest Groups and Associations Home Overview The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is granted broad authority relative to the regulation of commercial nuclear power plants. The NRC implements an inspection program consisting of both announced inspections and daily oversight conducted by resident inspectors. In the course of these NRC inspection activities, violations of regulatory requirements may be discovered. The NRC screens these violations of regulatory requirements using the significance determination process (SDP).
    [Show full text]
  • Nuclear-Spent Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Preface and Acknowledgments 5
    Nuclear-Spent Science Matters, LLC Science Matters, Bethesda, Maryland Fuel and High-Level Radioactive December 2019 Waste Disposal A Review of Options Considered in the United States An independent report Deepcommissioned Inc. Isolation, by Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D. Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments 4 Executive Summary 8 i. Early considerations 9 ii. The 1980 Environmental Impact Statement and geologic disposal 11 iii. Retrospective on the geologic disposal decision 13 iv. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act 14 v. The Continued Storage Rule 15 vi. Conclusions 16 I. From the 1950s to the mid-1970s 18 i. The 1957 National Research Council Report 20 ii. Lyons, Kansas 26 II. The changing framework in the 1970s 33 i. The energy front 34 ii. A change in nuclear power prospects 35 iii. The Indian nuclear test 38 III. Options for spent-fuel and high-level waste disposal 41 i. Transmutation 45 ii. Disposal in space 48 iii. Ice-sheet disposal 54 iv. Sub-seabed disposal 58 v. Island disposal 61 vi. Well injection 61 vii. Rock melt 64 viii. Disposal in very deep holes 66 ix. Disposal in a mined geologic repository 69 IV. Retrospective on disposal options 78 i. Breeder reactors and reprocessing 80 ii. Reprocessing-dependent disposal approaches 83 iii. Non-reprocessing dependent disposal concepts 88 iv. Deep-vertical borehole disposal 93 v. Horizontal borehole disposal 95 V. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act 98 VI. The NRC’s Continued Storage Rule and geologic isolation 106 i. The Continued Storage Rule 107 ii. Comments on continued storage and geologic isolation 108 VII.
    [Show full text]
  • Recollections and Reconstructions
    @ ? Editor's Note: The Society's Nuclear Pioneer Citationfor 1977 goes not to an individual but to a distinguished group of individuals: those who took part in the epochal “ChicagoPile―experiment of Dec. 2, 1942, which produced thefirst successful atomicpile chain reaction. The 42 members ofthe Chicago Pilegroup are listed on page 591. One ofthose named, Harold M. Agnew, now Directorofthe Los Alamos Scient@flc Laboratory, is the Nuclear Pioneer Lecturerfor the 24th Annual Meeting. The guidingforce behind the Chicago Pile experiment was Enrico Fermi, recipient of the Nuclear Pioneer Citation of 1963. In the artick which follows, Laura Fermi recreates the excitement and mystery that surrounded the work ofher husband's research team in the early 1940s in Chicago. @. The FirstAtomic Pile: Recollections and Reconstructions by Laura Fermi @ . @ / - .-i@ ‘@:@ Enrico FermIat work, ca. 1942. As far as I can remember at the distance ofalmost 35 Perhaps not all husbands adhered as strictly as years, the first guests to arrive at our party on that Enrico to the rules of secrecy when talking to their beastly cold December night were the Zinns. Wally wives. He couldn't have been more tight-lipped. Once! and Jean. As they shook the snow off their coats, related some gossip to him: “Peoplesay that you stamping their feet on the floor, Wally turned to scientists at the Met Lab are seeking a cure for Enrico and said: “Congratulations!― I was surprised; cancer. .““Arewe?―he asked with his usual for Enrico had given me no hint that anything unusual imperturbable expression.
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    'RANDOM MURDER BY TECHNOLOGY': THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC AND BIOMEDICAL EXPERTS IN THE ANTI-NUCLEAR MOVEMENT, 1969 - 1992 LISA A. RUMIEL A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HISTORY YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO AUGUST 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-54104-3 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-54104-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography on Saskatchewan Uranium Inquiries and the Northern and Global Impact of the Uranium Industry
    University of Regina iNis-mf—13125 __ CA9200098 Prairie Justice Research Bibliography on Saskatchewan Uranium Inquiries and The Northern and Global Impact of the Uranium Industry :• IN THF PimhlC INTEREST BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SASKATCHEWAN URANIUM INQUIRIES AND THE NORTHERN AND GLOBAL IMPACT OF THE URANIUM INDUSTRY Jim Harding, B.A. (Hons.), M.A., Ph.D. Director, Prairie Justice Research Beryl Forgay, B.Ed., B.HE., M.A. Research Officer, Prairie Justice Research Mary Gianoli, B.Ed. Research Co-ordinator, Prairie Justice Research Cover Design: Rick Coffin Published by PRAIRIE JUSTICE RESEARCH 1988 SERIES: IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST (Research Report No. 1) Published by: Prairie Justice Research Room 515 Library Building University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan Canada S4S OA2 Cataloguing in Publication Data Harding, Jim, 1941- Bibliography on Saskatchewan uranium inquiries and the northern and global impact of the uranium industry ISBN 0-7731-0052-0 I. Uranium mines and mining - Environmental aspects - Saskatchewan - Bibliography. 2. Uranium industry - Environmental aspects - Saskatchewan - Bibliography. 3. Uranium industry - Government policy - Saskatchewan - Bibliography. I. Forgay. Beryl, 1926- II. University of Regina. Prairie Justice Research. III. Title. Z6738.U7H37 1986 016.3637'384 C86-091166-: ISBN 0-7731-0135 (Set) This is a publication of Prairie Justice Research at the University of Regina. Prairie Justice Research is funded by an operating contract with the Ministry of the Solicitor General and has the capacity to conduct socio-legal research for a diverse range of constituencies. For further informaiton contact: Dr. Jim Harding Director Prairie Justice Research Library Building University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan Canada S4S 0A2 (306) 584-4064 NOTE: This research project was funded through "Human Context of Science and Technology" strategic grants of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • April 2005 Volume 16 Number 3
    Environmental Defense Institute News on Environmental Health and Safety Issues April 2005 Volume 16 Number 3 Radioactive Fallout Didn't Pass Over Southern Idaho ?? Leslie Dean of Twin Falls, Idaho questions the implications in a recent Times-News editorial "Fallout didn't pass over southern Idaho? The Times-News article brought to mind an experience with fallout in Twin Falls. I cannot believe that Blaine County received significant fallout while Twin Falls, Jerome, Minidoka, Lincoln and Gooding did not. Draw a line from Yucca Flats to Sun Valley. It is pretty hard to miss the southern counties! "I can attest to the fact that substantial radiation occurred in the vicinity of Twin Falls shortly after a 1950s test of a nuclear device in Nevada. I vividly recall a situation, which leads me to state unequivocally that Twin Falls vicinity did receive substantial radiation from at least one Nevada nuclear blast. The significance of radiation was not as well understood at that time and, hence, exact dates were not recorded. "One of the Nevada nuclear tests that was set off was followed in Twin Falls by a rain shower. I took my scintillator, a sensitive radiation detection system, out into my yard on Falls Avenue West after the shower passed and the reading simply went 'off the scale,' indicating a very large amount of radiation. At the time, this did not occasion alarm and we simply went on with our normal activities. In retrospect, we all should have been very concerned. "The fact remains that the Twin Falls area did receive a very substantial quantity of radiation fallout, and if counties to the north of the Magic Valley are to be included as 'downwinders,' it defies all logic to exclude other more southerly counties.
    [Show full text]