ANUMUKTI

A Journal Devoted to Non-Nuclear India

Volume 8 Number 5 April / May 1995

The Highest Duty l do not ask for mercy. I do not plead any extenuating act. lam here, therefore, to invite and cheerfully sub- mittothe highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen.

Mohandas K Gandhi (Statement in the Great Trial of 1922)

our Honour, the half a century. I came here to alert this courtroom to our government's Douglas County Jail is preparations for waging nuclear war. not a comfortable place to be I could have gone to any district in ...... especially for the United States to make the point. someone of my age and disability. I Sadly, our government's design, am 68 years old and blind. 1 can no manufacture, testing, transporta- longer read books or magazines, or tion, deployment, command and newspapers or even the mail that control of nuclear weapons perme- comes to me from friends and family. ates every part of our land. But I I can no longer play the chess games chose to come here because Offut and card games that help to while Air Force Base is headquarters of the away the days and weeks and US .Strategic Nuclear Command, months in jail. which controls the targeting and launching of many thousands of nu- But I did not come to Omaha to seek clear warheads, some more than 100 comfort. I did not come to Offutt Air times more powerful than the bomb Force Base and to jail in search of that destroyed Hiroshima. And I relief from pain and suffering that is chose to come here now because, largely of my making. And I have not contrary to public opinion and de- come to this courtroom today to spite the end of the cold war, our negotiate a return to the comforts of government has not relinquished home. one iota of its capacity for waging nuclear war. and it has no intention I came to make a point I came here of doing so. to say with my body what I have been saying with words for almost Under international law it is a crime to point weapons of mass destruction at defenceless cities. Under interna- tional law, it is the duty of every citizen to do everything possible to prevent such crimes. Many interna- tional laws are also the law of our land, having been ratified as treaties by the Senate of the United States. I have done my best to uphold the law. Now it is the responsibility of this court.

Your honour, you have seen the evi- dence in this case and rendered your verdict of guilty. So be it If this is the time for me to express regret and beg for mercy, I do so readily.

I regret that I did not succeed in penetrating the legal thicket of this case to apprise the court sufficiendy of the clear and present danger in this district I regret that, like the good judges who looked the other way in Nazi while Hitler was preparing his holocaust, you could not bring yourself to take ap- propriate action while there is still time, I regret that you did not seize From the Editor's Desk this opportunity to declare Strat- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has been in the news lately. We Com a global public nuisance, a have previously stated the Anumukti's position on this treaty in clear threat to the world, a crime against terms. We remain unambiguously opposed to India or anybody else for humanity. that matter, signing this treaty since we feel that no self-respecting person or nation can sign the treaty. The treaty seeks to perpetuate injustice in I beg for mercy - not for myself, but international relations and rewards those who have wilfully harmed their for the many millions who may some own unsuspecting citizens besides all other beings. The nuclear haves day perish under the mushroom have no intention even now of foregoing the power acquired through clouds of nuclear weapons possession of these weapons and are in fact in the process of 'refining' launched, in effect, from this very these and other newer tools of death. Even the blood money that these district I pray for mercy for the chil- nations are prepared to pay to other nations for observing nuclear celibacy dren, the old and the sick, the disad- is paid in the false coin of 'peaceful nuclear technology'. A bad bargain vantaged and the disabled who for all concerned. suffer daily , even in the absence of nuclear war, because public funds However, our opposition to the NPT does not in any way imply support that should be spent for them, rather for those in India who want to ape the wicked and make the bomb. In than siphoned into the coffers of this issue we have a number of articles from Sam Day—a previous editor corporations and military services of Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who continues to oppose his country's that profit from preparations for nu- nuclear madness not only through words but by laying his body on the clear war. And I beg for mercy for line. Some day I hope I shall have the same courage. the earth, suffocating and dying bit by bit under its mounting burden of Survey cit Kakrapar: Volunteers Needed permanent, deadly, radioactive poi- From May 20th onwards, we intend to do a health survey of people living son. in the vicinity of Kakrapar Atomic Power Station. The plant has been in operation for just two years. A team from South Gujarat University at Finally, Your Honour, I beg you to Surat had done a base-line health survey of the population. This survey reconsider your verdict. Not for my had been funded by the Department of Atomic Energy and has received sake, but for the sake of all I have a lot of co-operation from the nuclear authorities. The findings of the mentioned. If you cannot do this, survey have yet not been published. There is a rumour that an interim then I welcome whatever prison report has been submitted to nuclear authorities, but the public has no term you propose. Please know that access to it as a matter of , I cannot accept any probation that would We strongly feel that information regarding their own health and sur- keep me away from Offutt, or any roundings is the public's right. The main purpose of our survey would be other military or nuclear installa- to restore this right to people around Kakrapar. We intend to publish pur tion. On the other hand, if you find findings as soon as the analysis is over, hopefully before the end of this that you cannot in good conscience year. enforce a law that exonerates Strat- Com while criminalizing me, I invite A training camp for volunteers would be held in Vedchhi from May 20 you to come down from your bench to May 23, following which everyone would proceed to do the survey. and join me and my friends at the Amongst the volunteers, an ability to speak in Gujarati or Choudhry or gates of Offutt Air Force Base. We Gamit would be a great asset, although we also need people who can help need your help. Thank you. with computer data entry.

Sam Day from The Inside Word

April / May 1995 2 Anumukti VOLUME 8 Number 5 Wrong Turns At Every Crossroad

NPT: A Northern Antinuclear Perspective

n the half century weapons. In turn, the "have" states the oceans and the atmosphere, since a bomb of un- promised to cut back their arsenals, there is a loophole that would leave imaginable fury ush- leading to nuclear disarmament. the nuclear establishment free to ered in the atomic Yet, despite surface appearances, the conduct business as usual. In 1963, age, three events stand out as pivotal nuclear arms culture continued to the loophole left the nuclear weap- in the long and losing struggle to flourish. ons laboratories to test under- prevent the scourge of nuclear war ground. In 1995, the loophole is the by somehow stuffing the genie back In each of these instances, human sanction to continue testing in the into the bottle. aspirations for freedom from the fear laboratory. of nuclear destruction were system- In 1948, an effort to put atomic en- atically and cynically thwarted by While arms control advocates have ergy under international control, machinations of what has become a long pinned their hopes and put con- taking it out of the sovereign states, deeply entrenched nuclear-military- gressional muscle behind closing the foundered on superpower rivalry. industrial establishment. underground loophole, the nuclear The US refused to relinquish its sole weapons elite have been preparing a possession of nuclear weapons and Today, as in the past, the nuclear fall-back position in their laborato- the was determined to lobby is at work outflanking, confus- ries at Los Alamos, New Mexico, break that monopoly. ing, and even infiltrating the forces and Livermore, California. Their that still place their hope in a rea- success in achieving this was con- In 1963, forced to deal with a world- soned and non-violent end to the firmed last fall when the US Energy wide uproar over radioactive fallout nuclear arms era. Sadly, these cor- Department announced plans to from nuclear weapons testing, the rupting influences can be seen at build a $ 1.2 billion "National Igni- nuclear governments of that time, work in the current efforts of the tion Facility" at the Livermore lab. (the US, the USSR and Britain) pre- "arms control" community, in sup- served their testing capability by port of a Comprehensive Test Ban The function of the new facility agreeing to limit it to deep holes Treaty (CBT) and a strengthened would be to simulate the unique con- under the ground. The result was Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. ditions (heat, pressure, and radia- that field testing of new warheads, tion) which are necessary for the one of the keys to nuclear weapons Late in January, in what appeared to testing of newly designed nuclear development, continued unabated be a move toward final termination war-heads and their components and the arsenals grew enormously. of nuclear weapons testing, Presi- which are necessary for the testing of dent Clinton announced that the newly designed nuclear warheads In 1970, when advances in nuclear US would no longer hold out for an and their components. Its purpose technology threatened to spread nu- "escape clause" in the CTB now be- and effect is to facilitate the contin- clear weapons throughout the indus- ing negotiated in Geneva by the ma- ued forward thrust of nuclear weap- trialised world, the five nuclear jor nuclear weapons states. Since US ons development without the need weapons powers sought to stem the hesitance had come to be a key stum- for new field explosions that are ex- tide by negotiating the United Na- bling block in the negotiations, the pensive, dirty, detectable and politi- tions Non-Proliferation Treaty. The apparent policy switch paved the cally burdensome. NPT bought off the "have not" way for the long sought CTB. states, by offering them nuclear Continued reliance on the NPT as a power technology in exchange for. But, as in 1963, when the nuclear way of shrinking nuclear arsenals and confirming their spread also is their pledge not to produce nuclear states agreed to banish testing from

Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 3 April / May 1995 fatally flawed. This will become even What about the problem of clandes- Not surprisingly, the nuclear estab- more evident when the 170 signa- tine nuclear weapons production by lishment in the US, having infil- tory states gather on April 17, to states that refuse to sign the NPT trated and seduced much of the consider whether Co extend, modify, and thereby avoid the international liberal arms control community, is or scrap the existing 25-year old inspection of their nuclear facilities? pushing hard for a Comprehensive agreement Notable amongst such rogue states Test Ban Treaty - excluding labo- are India and Pakistan and Israel. ratory testing - and for renewal of Many NPT critics will be attempting Surely, NPT should not be renewed the Non-Proliferation Treaty with in New York to pressure the nuclear without the provision of economic no strings attached. They argue now, weapons states into deeper cuts by and diplomatic sanctions against as they did before, that this is the agreeing to a limited extension of the NPT-1 non-signatories. most we can accomplish at this treaty. But this would only defer the time. unresolved issues underlying the What about the wisdom of continu- NPT: ing to promote nuclear power in the For those who have learned to live Third World as an incentive for stay- with the bomb, and to depend on it If the signing of the CTB leaves the ing away from nuclear weapons pro- and profit from it, 1995 promises a loop-hole of laboratory testing for duction? Iraq and North Korea, both renewed lease on business as usual technologically advanced nuclear NPT signatories, have shown how of the kind secured in 1948,1963 and "have" states, why should the new international inspectors can be 1970. For the rest of us it could bring treaty be taken as evidence of their hoodwinked. The leading industrial still another lost opportunity to intent to give up their advantage? states now pushing nuclear power on usher out the atomic age short of Surely, NPT should not be extended the Third World have already en- atomic war itself. without a ban on the testing in the countered the ruinous health, envi- laboratory as well as in the field, and ronmental, and economic effects. Sam Day, in Nukewatch without international monitoring to Surely, NPT should not be further ensure compliance. extended without a fresh assessment of the global impact of nuclear power.

NPT, A SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVE

The NPT has not been much of a upgrade and modernise their nuclear within which they plan to eliminate success either in promoting disar- weapons. And despite being signato- their nuclear weapons arsenals. The mament or in promoting nuclear ries to the NPT, Iraq and North Ko- US does not even support Geneva non-proliferation. Even while the rea have managed to develop their negotiations for a treaty to outlaw United States and Russia have made own clandestine nuclear weapons the first use of nuclear weapons a modest beginning in reducing their programmes. against non-nuclear states, Russia nuclear arsenals, they continue to has retreated from its 1978 no-first- press for an indefinite continuation The non-nuclear nations view the use pledge. China still continues to of the NPT. This would allow them NPT as an unequal and inadequate test; and of the other four who have to maintain arsenals treaty. They are justified in thinking accepted a voluntary ban on testing, forever. that an indefinite extension of the it is still not clear how long France NPT means an indefinite postpone- will adhere to it. and there is pressure The three other nuclear power sig- ment of universal nuclear disarma- even in the US to continue with natories to the NPT - France , Brit- ment. As it is, the five declared hydro-nuclear testing or laboratory ain and China - remain free to nuclear powers have no time frame level testing.

Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 April / May 1995 4 If the important long term goal of the confusion between civil and military Defendants of nuclear weapons in NPT is universal nuclear disarma- weapon and dual-use potential of the undeclared of de-facto nuclear ment, then it is difficult to see how nuclear technology, no clear defini- states are using a number of devious the non-nuclear nations can be tion of a nuclear weapon,, the dual- arguments to justify not giving up convinced that this goal can be role of the IAEA as both a promoter their nuclear weapons capability. achieved through an indefinite and and controller of nuclear technol- The use of the racial metaphor of unconditional extension of the ogy etc. These have been discussed maintaining a balance between the NPT. endlessly by experts. white and the non-white nuclear and nuclear capable powers, the ar- The treaty has no teeth. It does not No doubt the various shortcomings gument for achieving self-reliance place reasonable obligations on the of the NPT can be discussed in de- and strategic autonomy through declared nuclear powers to move to- tail to counter the arguments of proliferation and claiming that NPT wards disarmament. There is no those who want to extend the treaty cannot resolve regional conflicts are time-frame in the treaty for disar- indefinitely in its present form. The all part of the same bag of arguments. mament, no markers for progress to- political point, however, is that from wards that goal and no censure, which perspective and with which Here is a sample of the racial argu- sanction or punishment for failure goal are these shortcomings being ment from an Indian strategic ana- to disarm. It is any wonder then that pointed out. Is the perspective one lyst who sees a desirable balance Article VI of the treaty, its general of meaningful progress towards dis- emerging between the first four nu- link with the goal of disarmament, armament and non-proliferation or clear powers - the USA, the USSR has become a major rallying point of merely maintaining a moral high (now Russia), Britain and France for the non-nuclear signatories to ground while simultaneously creat- and the late entrants like China, Is- the treaty? ing a space for maintaining a nuclear rael, India and Pakistan. He writes: option. The question is one of ten- "Today we have a situation where as Because the NPT didn't aim towards dency - which way is one moving against the four white nuclear universal nuclear disarmament in a while making the right noises? weapon nations there are four non- meaningful way, it was not able to white nuclear weapon/nuclear ca- bring in nations which wanted to The question may have been re- pable weapon nations, keep their nuclear options open - solved in the case of South Africa, corresponding to four civilisations - although it is quite possible that even which has dismantled its nuclear the Sinic, the Jewish, the Hindu, the if the NPT were an equal treaty, weapons and joined the NPT. It is Islamic...Today there is a balance be- countries like India and Israel might not of much significance in the case tween four white and four non-white still have kept out of it. of Argentina and Brazil because nuclear weapon/nuclear capable they have taken definite steps in the weapon nations. There is no reason The NPT is a contradictory treaty in direction of bilateral and regional why this balance should be disturbed several respects - its objective is to agreements on disarmament. But it in favour of the white nations by prevent by the assumes a special significance in the reducing the non-white repre- Haves while prohibiting horizontal case of the undeclared of de-facto sentation." proliferation the Have Nots; it actu- nuclear notions outside the NPT - ally promotes commercial nuclear i.e. Israel, India and Pakistan. By The argument is not only racist it is technology and materials that can be saying that in the Middle East the also patently dishonest, there can be used in weapons programme; and it NPT alone cannot prevent local no disarmament by legitimising the justifies peaceful nuclear explosions wars, Israel is only defending its un- nuclear proliferation of Israel, India, whose benefits are yet to be demon- declared nuclear status. And when Pakistan or China. strated but whose disastrous envi- India criticises the NPT as not pro- ronmental consequences are all too moting global disarmament and be- Even the end of the Cold War is used apparent. There are several other ing discriminatory , we know only by the defenders of nuclear weapons inadequacies in the arrangements too well that these are self-serving in India to argue for proliferation. associated with the treaty - ineffi- arguments for keeping the Indian It is suggested that the bipolar cient safeguards, the unresolved nuclear weapon option open. world through its system of alliances

Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 S April / May 1995 permitted an "external balancing" the Cold War has knocked out what erful political case for nuclear which obviated the need for devel- ever basis there might have been for weapon free zones because they ad- oping nuclear weapons by several nuclear weapons. And although dress the issue of security without other countries. However, since this there is a long way to go towards a sacrificing national sovereignty of le- has become impossible with the col- nuclear weapon free world, elimina- gitimising the possession of nuclear lapse of the Soviet Union, they argue tion now appears to be a realistic weapons by a handful of states. several middle ranking developing and necessary goal. While they are a potent contribution countries feel the need to acquire to nuclear disarmament, they do not their own nuclear capability- a sort Within the overall context of the at the same time negate a larger of "internal balancing" to maintain end of the Superpower rivalry, sev- global effort their strategic autonomy and inde- eral factors have made it conducive pendence. today to push the agenda for elimi- It is difficult to see how the path to nation of nuclear weapons. The nuclear restraint and disarmament Yet another argument is that since successful adoption of the Chemical either in West Asia or South Asia some nuclear proliferation has al- Weapons Convention is one such can go via the NPT. Any restraint ready taken place, why not shift the factor. The inability of the declared must not single out some govern- focus - from preventing nuclear nuclear powers to push through an ments for disarmament while the proliferation to "managing" it Thus indefinite extension of the NPT is declared NWS (and Israel) continue an Indian bomb analyst has sug- another. The movement forward on to possess nuclear arsenals. Thus, for gested that a supplementary agree- a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty example, in mid-February, in Cairo, ment to the NPT be signed to create and on fissile material cut-off is yet the Arab league members - to what he calls "an Equal Opportu- another factor that shows that the "make the Middle East a zone free nity NPT" which would help bring disarmament and non-proliferation from atomic, biological and chemi- the nuclear hold-outs against the agenda can be pushed on several cal weapons." The draft is to be pre- treaty into the regime, without un- complimentary, converging and sented, according to news reports, to dermining it. This, it is suggested, mutually reinforcing tracks. the Arab League foreign ministers could be followed with an arrange- for ratification in March in Cairo. ment, prohibiting all further nu- The crux of the matter is to un- clear-weapon related activity equivocally repudiate the security The idea of a Nuclear Weapons Free world-wide, and which would ban doctrines and policies which justify Zone has been mooted in the South all future manufacture of nuclear the development, possession and use Asian context too - by Pakistan and weapons, impose a comprehensive of nuclear weapons, and to make a by peace activists even in India. verification regime on all countries. commitment to the objective of The long and short of these argu- eliminating nuclear weapons. Analysing India's options for exam- ments is that as long as nuclear Once this is done, several ap- ple, one such activist has argued that weapons continue to be seen as a proaches are possible to meet this in the absence of a coherent nuclear potent currency of power interna- objective. doctrine, India's nuclear choices tionally, there would not only be are painfully limited. The choice of proliferation, but also many argu- One such approach in the West closing the nuclear weapons option ments to rationalise their spread. Asian and South Asian contexts is seems politically unfeasible given the that of proposing the setting up of hype and jingoism over Pakistan's Clearly, the alternative to a discrimi- Nuclear Free Zones. Such zones are nuclear capability. Implementing natory non-proliferation treaty good transitional mechanisms to the nuclear option and announcing would be genuine and complete nu- global disarmament. At the same that India has nuclear arsenal clear disarmament through credible time they represent a principled and could be even more problematic as it ways leading to the elimination of yet realistic framework for nuclear would elicit a similar response from nuclear weapons. Disarmament can restraint in a region. Pakistan and at the same time pro- only be promoted by actually dis- voke China into a nuclear-adver- arming and not by proliferating even The proponents of nuclear weapon sarial relationship which would if in a limited manner. The end of free zones argue that there is a pow-

April / May 6 Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 1995 result in an unequal nuclear arms Thus peace activists in South Asia, First, the US and Russia should be- race. for example, have been arguing that gin negotiations on a Third Strategic global agreements such as CTBT, Arms Reduction Treaty (START But the option for India - engaging no first use and fissile production III) that would set a timetable for a Pakistan in a bilateral dialogue to cut-off are a pre-condition far a gradual decrease of nuclear weapons establish a nuclear weapons free South Asian Nuclear Weapon Free below the level of 3,500 each nego- zone in South Asia - actually pro- Zone initiative. They are necessary tiated by the Bush Administration vides a workable alternative to the pre-conditions but not sufficient. in the START II agreement of 1991. discriminatory nuclear non-prolif- The argument is that to be effective The timetable should project pro- eration treaty while supporting in breaking the South Asian Impasse gressive and balance reductions genuine disarmament. , CTBT, no first use and fissile mate- down to 600 nuclear weapons...Sec- rial production cut-off must be fol- ond, the START III dialogue To quote, once again, an advocate of lowed by (a) deep cuts in strategic should be accompanied b five-power the South Asian Nuclear Weapons nuclear weapons of the five Nuclear negotiations on the 'treaty of nuclear Free Zone: "As transitional steps, Weapon States; (b) an universalisa- security and stability' proposed by the two governments should agree tion of the INF Agreement; (c) a President Yeltsin in the UN in Sep- not to deploy missiles, to freeze fissile substantial reduction of strategic tember . He envisioned 'further material production, and not to test missiles; (d) quick elimination of steps' to limit Russian and American or use their nuclear weapon capabili- battlefield tactical weapons; and (e) strategic nuclear weapons, together ties, as well as take confidence progress in verification agreements. with a cap on further increases in building measures. This will lay French, Chinese and British nuclear down the ground for involving other Needless to say that if the NPT is arms while the US - Russian build South Asian states and the nuclear extended indefinitely this April it down progresses." powers in negotiating a Nuclear would become so much more diffi- Weapons Free Zone agreement - cult to take these major steps to Then he suggests that getting down prevent the manufacture or deploy- eliminate the bulk of the world's from the 660 to 0 would require a ment of nuclear weapons in the nuclear arsenals. broadened dialogue embracing nu- region, the targeting of such weap- clear capable states such as India, ons at it, or their transportation Indeed , even strategic analysts in Israel and Pakistan. And elimina- through it." the nuclear weapon states realise tion, he says, will become a realistic that unless some genuine progress is possibility only if continuing pro- However given the existence of seen to be made in this direction, the gress is made in establishing secure weak governments in both India NPT cannot be extended uncondi- safeguards against further prolifera- and Pakistan at the present juncture, tionally and indefinitely. At the last tion. This certainly represents a way such a regional initiative is not pos- count the US needed 15 to 20 more forward. sible without global measures to- votes than it now has out of the 169 wards nuclear disarmament. signatories to the NPT to get it ex- Only once the extension of the NPT Perhaps this is true even of West tended indefinitely by even a sim- is predicated on the specific move- Asia. ple majority. The prospects of a ment forward on several compli- decisive majority are little. mentary, converging and mutually Some Nuclear Weapon States such reinforcing nuclear disarmament as the US have tried to push Writing in the New York Times on tracks, does it make sense even to through the Nuclear Weapon Free Feb. 15 1995, Selig Harrison, a fel- argue what kind of rolling extension Zone idea in South Asia. But they low of the Carnegie Endowment for of the treaty should be supported. are bereft of any moral legitimacy in International Peace, suggested that: arguing for such an initiative unless To rescue the non-proliferation Bharat Bhushan, in WISE treaty, the nuclear powers should they themselves are seen to make News Communique proportional nuclear disarmament take two immediate steps to demon- commitments. strate their recognition of their Arti- cle VI obligations.

April / May Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 7 1995 Military Experiments

It has now been admitted by the US allow for locating HAARP to close disorientation and many other Department of Defence that in the to any military facility. The capabil- physical effects. dawn of the nuclear age it undertook ity of HAARP is greater than the deliberate radiation experiments total output of the more than half-a- Certainly admitting to wrong doing with children, pregnant women, million US ham radio operators us- in the past and making some attempt prisoners, mentally retarded persons ing their maximum allowed power. to compensate the victims is a step and the terminally ill. This was done Communication with isolated Arc- forward for the military. However, during the same time period in tic villages and bush pilots is often a such action becomes hollow, dis- which the US and other victor na- life and death matter in the North. honest and reprehensible if the gross tions prosecuted Germany for the violations of human rights continue same crimes against humanity. The inventor of HAARP is Bernard under another guise. Eastlund. He was hired by ARCO These types of crimes and duplicity "to find a use for their Alaska Birth Until the US ratifies the United Na- appear to be still practised by the US Slope gas deposits." Patents held by tions Human Rights Covenants and military, as recently as in the Gulf the ARCO subsidiary building joins the international community of War. It also appears to be part of the HAARP describe an ionospheric nations which recognise and uphold military policy underlying the heater capable of stopping missiles, those rights, such purges of past mis- HAARP project now underway in changing weather and disrupting takes will not be taken seriously. The Gakona, Alaska, with planned im- global communication. The HARP right of all humans to life and health plementation in 1997. This High project appears to be an implemen- should be a constituent part of a Frequency Active Auroal Research tation of Easdund's patents. genuine democracy. Experimenting Project (HAARP) will heat the with electronic zapping of the hu- ionosphere using powerful beams of The Military has made increasing man body, disruptions of weather non-ionising radiation. Potentially use of non-ionising radio waves, like and wiping out of essential commu- this will set the Earth into vibrations the polarised pulsing transmissions nication in the guise of national se- or oscillations similar to the Earth's planned for HAARP, in recent years curity constitutes a crime against axis wobble. The joint US Army as an electronic "fence" at Green- humanity and perversion of both the and Navy project involves interfer- ham Common and other military Constitution of the United States ence with the Earth's magneto- bases. According to Defense News and the Charter of the United Na- sphere with unknown effects at the an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) tions. It undermines the very notion opposite magnetic pole near Austra- weapon designed to mimic the flash of security. lia and New Zealand. Professor of electricity from a nuclear weapon Richard Williams has denounced was an example of technology used References: the experiment as "irresponsible in Operation Desert Storm. The 1. Final Environmental Impact State- and dangerous". Alaskan Federal Gulf War has been described as an ment for HAARP, US Department of Aviation Authority (FAA) person- "electronic battleaeld" with 14,000 Defense, 1993. nel, pilots, communications engi- electronic detectors each sounding 2. Williams, R. Physics and Society, neers and others have raised alarms up to three times daily during the April 1988. about HAARP'S interference with war. This electronic environment 3. Eastkind, B. Microwave News. May- radio communication. They were may well be one of the triggers June 1994. which left more than 16,000 veter- overruled by the national FAA 4. Defense News, April 13-19, 1992. which approved the project propos- ans with Gulf War Syndrome. The 5. USA Today, May 26,1994. ing that the problems be "miti- preponderance of current research gated". On the other hand, the shows that non-lonising radiation military claims the transmission in- can promote cancer growth, cause Dr. Rosalie Bertell terference problems are too great to

April / May 1995 • Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 Regular readers of Anumukti need they have created in the last four Letter Box not be told about the "achieve- decades. ments" of DAE despite the thou- sands of crores that have been Sanjay Havanur So Little For So Much pumped into it for decades. What is alarming is the feet that today, DAE is not in a position to make even false Against Toxic Dumping in It has happened yet again. Every year promises. It has already admitted Mysore the nuclear establishment manages that the uranium reserves in the to (mis) appropriate the lion's share country are sufficient only for about of government funding for science I am receiving my and technology. One would have Budget Allocations copies of Anumukti thought that in the post liberalisa- regularly and en- tion, market driven economy the cri- Department Budget in Rs joying every one of teria of efficiency and minimum (Crores) them. The recently level of performance would be ap- introduced AERB plied to nuclear industry as well. But Column is, in my Science and Technology 418.85 no such luck. The gross distortions opinion, something in our science policy which have fa- of a victory for our CSIR Laboratories 411.03 voured atomic energy projects, per- movement I hope sist even today. A quick look at this that people within year's budget allocations tell its own Bio-Technology 96.52 the nuclear estab- story. lishment get to Non-Conventional Energy 248.38 Sources read Anumukti and Nucleocrats have managed to allo- especially the cate themselves more money than AERB Column. the entire budgets of the Depart- Atomic Energy 1402.15 ment of Science and Technology, You are probably the vast network of 29 CSIR Labo- aware that the Kar- ratories, bio-technology, and the 10,000 MW of installed capacity. nataka Raitha Department of Non-conventional The Indian breeder development Sangha is agitating against the Energy Sources, combined! Of the programme has been a disaster, like dumping of toxic waste in the vicin- energy budget, 85% goes to "de- all the other such programmes in the ity of three villages in the Chamaraja velop" nuclear technology and all world. The cost of developing any Taluka of Mysore District. The agi- the so called non conventional en- revolutionary reactor technology is tation is being led by Sri Mallesh, the ergy sources are allocated the re- mercifully ruled out. The writing on secretary of the Sangha. I have writ- maining crumbs. the wall is becoming more and more ten to him and to The Star of visible. Atomic energy has nothing Mysore, a local English newspaper Comparison of the atomic energy to offer. So what is the money going expressing my support. I feel that the budget with the budget for priority into7 toxic waste which is now proposed sectors like primary education is to be dumped cannot but include equally revealing. Despite all the It would have been gratifying if the some waste from the uranium en- crocodile tears of the finance minis- answer had been "for research into richment plant at Ratnahalli which ter about the crucial importance of decommissioning and waste man- is just 4 kilometres outside Mysore. elementary education, the total allo- agement aspects." Moral responsibil- cation for primary education (Rs 651 ity is not a word to be found in nay Asha Vombatkere crores) and secondary education (Rs nuclear glossary, but the nucleocrats New Delhi 670 crores) is still less than the nu- owe the society at least some effort clear largesse. towards cleaning up the mess that

Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 9 April / May 1993 ings. For example, in 1992 the Cana- Tragic Consequences of Ig- most productive group in the labour dian physician R. K. Whyte demon- force - continues to decline in Ger- noring Sakharov's Warnings strated in the British Medical Journal many and Japan. Thus we are left that atmospheric fallout caused ex- with the ironic speculation that be- traordinary increases in neonatal cause those two countries lost After the success of an extremely mortality and stillbirths in the World War II, they were precluded powerful test of a Hydrogen bomb in United States and Britain after 1950, from exposing their progeny to emis- 1955, began to thus validating Sakharov's fear that sions from the manufacture and test- worry about its biological effects. there would be immediate as well as ing of nuclear weapons, and may Animal studies conducted with his delayed harm to those born during therefore be said to have won biologist colleagues indicated that the bomb testing years. "World War III". the ingestion of strontium 90 would cause both immediate and delayed But Sakharov also predicted that The lesson to be learnt from the damage to the immune response, man-made radiation would acceler- history of the atom bomb is that and he calculated that each atmos- ate the mutation of all micro-organ- both the Western world and the for- pheric test with a 50 megaton yield isms, leading to the inference that mer Soviet Union have paid a great could cause a million premature baby boomers born after 1945 with price for ignoring the warnings of deaths world-wide. weakened hormonal and immune such great scientists as Albert Ein- systems would eventually encounter stein, Niels Bohr, Linus Pauling, and In 1958, Nikita Khrushchev was newly mutated and therefore more Andrei Sakharov. eager to reach a testing moratorium lethal strains of bacteria and viruses, with the Americans and permitted sexually transmitted as in the case of Jay M Gould in Sakharov to publish his concerns. AIDS . In a 1990 article in the And indeed, neither the United American Journal of Public Health, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists States nor the Soviet Union con- the Atlanta Centres for Disease January/February 1995 ducted any above-ground tests in Control affirmed that, because of 1959 and 1960, much to Sakharov's AIDS, the mortality rates of men in Letter from Eastern satisfaction. But in 1961, after a the 25 -44 age group has started to Europe fruidess, heart-breaking meeting in rise in the 1980s, for the first time Vienna between Khrushchev and ever . And we now know that the newly elected President John F. organisms responsible for many in- Kennedy, Sakharov was devastated fectious diseases, including tubercu- What do greenies and anti-nukes do to learn that Khrushchev had or- losis and those associated with the with their holidays - or what they dered the testing of hydrogen bombs AIDS syndrome, are mutating so fondly imagine will be holidays? of nearly unlimited explosive power rapidly as to resist traditional antibi- Generally it seems, we turn them - equivalent to 25,000 Hiroshima otics, creating an unprecedented into workadays, if not by coming to bombs - powerful enough to accel- public health crisis. Vedchhi to write articles like this erate the death of several millions , one, then by going to places like according to Sakharov's calcula- Finally, mortality data broken down Eastern Europe and getting roped in tions. When Sakharov questioned by age and published annually in the (willingly I must admit), to fight with Khrushchev at a meeting later that United Nations Demographic Year- plans by the European Bank for Re- year, he was denounced as "politi- book indicate that in the 1980s, the construction and Development cally naive'' and was thereafter ban- baby boomer's mortality rates dete- (EBRD), Slovensky Energeticky ished from the Soviet nuclear riorated in all the major nuclear na- Podniky (SEP) the Slovak electricity establishment. tions except Germany and Japan producer, Electrieite de France (cited in International Journal of (EDF), Seimens and Bayernwerke, There is now considerable evidence Health Services, April 1994). to complete the construction to of the remarkable prescience of Sak- western standards of two Soviet-de- harov's predictions and the tragic Meanwhile , in the 1980s, the mor- signed VVER nuclear plants in consequences of ignoring is warn- tality rates for 25-44 year olds - the Slovakia. Two-three months solid

April / May 1998 10 Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 work that ended with the Polish As well as its nuclear concerns, sludge dusted their crops, their ani- Ecological Club (Polski Klub Hnuti Duha is also very much con- mals, their children, and them. Ecologiczny) and the author all over cerned with uranium mining and Polish TV and newspapers. waste issues, energy, and animal Radon measurements were not even rights. taken by the company because it was Wait! This is getting ahead of myself. said that measurements done at an-

It all started innocently enough, Uranium Mines: other mining centre were 'enough'. when my spouse Mishka (who is Pol- The Spearhead of the Assault Soil sampling had turned up thorium ish by birth) and I toured Poland and - a decay product of uranium. The Nuclear power plants run on ura- Czechoslovakia for about two mining company said it had 'come nium, and while we were with Hnuti months in November/Decem- down in the rain'. Thorium is not a Duha, they took us to see the ura- ber' 1994. It seemed natural in the component of fallout either from nium mine that supplies the Duk- course of our other activities, to call ovany nuclear plant with fuel. Chernobyl or from testing, so there in on various environment groups in Dukovany has a contract with a lo- is no way it can have come down in Poland and Czechoslovakia. We cal Czech firm named Diamo for its the rain. Cattle deaths had in- spoke in our travels to activists in the 56t/y consumption. Diamo operates creased fourfold in the 1990s, and Green Federation and the Green a very costly and messy mine at a illnesses amongst schoolchildren Foundation, and the Council for All place called Rojna, 40 km Southwest had risen by 100% in one year. beings and to Tomasz Terlecki in of Brno, and a meeting was set up for Polski Klub Ecologiczny in Cracow, What upset people most however, us to talk to local people. the medieval city that is the cultural was the attitude of the company and heart of Poland. Tomasz indicated The locals showed us a monster tail- the authorities. According to the that he might have something up his ings dam containing 1.1 million leader of the local agricultural de- sleeve to work on in the shape of a tonnes of tailings and 17 million ton- partment, I'm not drinking milk, so nuclear reactor in Slovakia called nes of 'sludge'. They showed us a I don't care'. The mining company Mochovce', and gave me a file of smaller tailings dam in what used to simply maintained that the con- material relating to it. We then spent be a pretty valley consisting of sludge cerns of local residents were being a week with Hnuti Duha, a radical and piles of waste (including we stirred up by nasty environmental grass- roots group in the city of Brno, were told, cyanide waste) that re- activists like Hnuti Duha. in Czechoslovakia - also an interest' flected the setting autumn sun in ing medieval place, but quite differ- interesting shades of toxic green. Now that the place is already ent from Cracow. Hnuti Duha just spoilt, we might as well use it happened to have extensive files on Later, they took us to a local meeting for a dump the safety of Russian-design nuclear I hall, not 300m from the big tailings Indeed, while the company main- power plants, which naturally, I dam, where they entertained us with tained on the one hand that there raided, since Mochovce was a Rus- limitless home-cooked food and were no problems from its opera- sian-designed plant. Czech beer (brewed since 1326) and tions, it argued on the other hand with tales of the mining company that the area had already been Hnuti Duha is strongly involved in and their so-far fruitless struggle to 'spoiled' and should be used as a kind opposition to the Temelin nuclear get rid of it. The contrasts and the of 'national sacrifice area' for the power plant, as well as with the al- similarities with our situation in disposal of various toxic wastes, an ready operating Dukovany nuclear Australia were startling: Rojna was a unappetising prospect for the locals. plant, which just happens to be the smaller, yet a much dirtier operation same kind of plant as the Mochovce than anything I had come across in As we took the train from Brno to plant: a Soviet-designed Australia. Maybe it resembles mines Rojna, we observed dense forests, WER213/440. Temelin is a Soviet- in India. These people lived, not 500 narrow valleys, a covered medieval designed WER-320/1000 plant, or 100 km away from it as they do in bridge, a castle on a crag, and an- which is due to be completed by an- Australia, but 200-300m away from cient churches and villages. Just the other western consortium of which it. The dust from the dried tailings place, the folks from Hnuti Duha the main player is Westinghouse.

Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 11 April / May 1995 Cold us, for a nuclear waste dump for vourably with the German one with Mochovce is an earlier (and hence, the Dukovany reactors. The villag- fares at about l/5th the price,to be according to the Western nuclear ers had told us that they were indeed, 'superfluous', it explicitly intends to industry in 1989-1990-91, a more a 'candidate site' for a national nu- run down the rail system in favour of dangerous) VVER440/213 plant. clear waste dump. After ah, they had massive investments in roads funded Construction on Mochovce 1&2 was mine tailings and toxic waste, so why by multilateral development agen- suspended in 1990 due to lack of not a nuclear waste dump? cies whose charters include commit- money, and the EBRD and ments to 'sustainable development'. EDF/Bayemwerke/Seimens have of- A major theme for every Eastern fered to complete it to 'western' European environment group is en- Meanwhile, the Temelin nuclear safety standards. ergy. This picture is completed by power plant, consisting of 2- the major nuclear concerns in the lOOOMwe VVER-320 plants which The EBRD has at least, due to its Czech Republic and Slovakia - con- was being built with Russian help up own guidelines for project assess- cerns which, if Mochovce and Te- to 1990, is to be completed with ment, been forced to insist that the mclin successfully reach completion, money from Eximbank and the help project sponsors, SEP and EDF, issue may ripple out to affect unfinished of Westinghouse. Never mind the a complete environmental impact nuclear plants in Poland also. Also fact that in 1990, Western govern- statement, least - cost analysis, and critical to the Eastern European en- ments were saying that Russian-de- safety documentation. It was this ergy picture are the activities of the signed nuclear plants in Eastern that I was asked by Polski Klub multilateral development banks Europe were/are accidents waiting to Ecologiczny to critique. such as EBRD, Eximbank, and the happen, and that the only sensible World Bank, and programs such as thing to do was to close them down. Meanwhile, back in cultured and Phare and Tacis. Never mind the fact that Austria, medieval Cracow, where baroque whose own historic capital, Vienna, and Gothic churches front onto nar- The Worst of Both Worlds is not so far over the border, and who row, supposedly car - free streets full I of bookshops and cafes where the While these agencies arc supposedly sensibly abandoned nuclear power dissidents used to hang out, and funding 'sustainable' and 'least-cost' in 1978, is strorgly apposed to the where every third person seems to be energy strategies, they are in fact completion of Teme in. Never mind wearing a clerical garb of some kind, heavily involved in promoting pro- the fact that the local population are a few activists also struggle with jects which are imposing the worst utterly opposed to it, and that civil green issues. aspects of Western development, disobedience actiors (coordinated while retaining the worst aspects o{ by Hnuti Duha) have already taken the old Communist structures. place, and that the previous Prime Cracow itself was presented in the Meanwhile, those things that the Minister of the Czech Republic has 1950s by the Communists with a vast Communist regimes got more- or- declared his opposition to it. Never steelworks at Nowa Huta, in an at- less right (such as the heavy empha- mind the $USi-2 billion cost of try- tempt to proletarianise the place. sis on rail transport and on cheap ing to complete the plant to 'west- The attempt failed spectacularly in public transport in general) are dis- ern' standards. This is one the 1970s as the steel plant became Communist inheritance that the a hotbed of strike activity and mas- mantled or downgraded. powers-that-be think must be pre- sive demonstrations round the only church permitted in the area, dem- Current government policies in Po- served and built on at all costs. onstrations that succeeded in top- land and the Czoch Republic rein- pling the regime. But the steelworks force this trend. The Czech A similar situation holds in Slovakia, has created a permanent greyish government for example, now con- whose Mochovce nuclear plant has brown pall over the city. siders the excellent train and tram become a major European issue, system that it has inherited from the with the Austrian government and a Communists, a system that would be network of environment groups in IAutomobile is King the envy of supposedly advanced Austria, Germany, the UK, Meanwhile, now that Communism Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and the Australia, and which compares fa- has gone, the push is on to give more US opposing the project.

April / May 1995 12 Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 and more space to the private car Katowice has been described as 'the At a national level, this deteriora- which apart from the steelworks has most polluted place in Europe'. I do tion in public transport manifests in become the main source of pollution not know that this is any longer true: the continual cutting back of 'ordi- and of course, to downgrade the The sheer volume of what used to be nary' train services, while more up- once excellent tram and bus systems. the dominant form of pollution, in- market 'intercity' and international Cracow is lucky in that it docs have dustrial pollution, has been slashed trains costing ten times as much con- a strong bicycle lobby and it and the by the massive closure of many en- tinue to be promoted. This is a phe- green federation arc engaged in an terprises, as well as the fitting of nomenon that will be familiar to effort to rid the old city of cars, and some pollution control equipment. Indian readers. make it an area for cycles and pedes- To the naked eye at least, Ostrava in trians,. An attempt has already been the Czech Republic resents a more Striding Toward Energy Inef- made to rid the medieval city of cars, appalling vista, with vast clouds of ficiency but implementation is less than smoke and steam belching from an I The problems of which Katowice is wholehearted. Cars still manage to old steelworks. And India certainly the main example go to the heart clog the footpath next to the 11th has much more diabolical industrial also of Communist-style Polish and century church of St Anne and the landscapes (for example around Eastern European energy-use. 16th century church of St Peter and Dhanbad) as well as more choking Communist-style industrialisation Paul and the University Library. auto -pollution, especially in Delhi. meant the establishment of heavy industries with little or no regard But Katowice has massive soil and Dhanbad of Europe either for the environmental impact I water pollution, and big problems Not-so-sunny and not so medieval, of those industries or for efficiency with mine wastewater. And the pub- polluted, grubby heavily industrial in their use of energy. Poland, lic transport situation is much worse Katowice and Chorzow, where Czechoslovakia (now Czech Repub- than in Cracow, where there is a pro- Mishka was bought up are not so far lic and Slovakia) and Hungary thus public transport lobby. As in Cra- from Cracow, though ail-too -radical have one of the largest ratios of en- cow, pollution from motor vehicles surgery has been done to the timings ergy-use per unit of GNP. (This fig- is fast becoming the major source of of the trains that used to make the ure should be used with care, as air pollution. Plans exist for massive trip between the two cities so easy. GNPs expressed in $US say more superhighway construction round Katowice represents much of what is about what a country's currency is Katowice, which are held up only by problematic in today's. Poland. worth on the money market than the lack of money. they do about goods and services Katowice became an area of mines actually available to local people. While the public transport services and factories as long ago as the 17th Thus, incomes it Poland, and other deteriorate further, fares are raised century, and developed after the countries expressed in $US tell little continually, and the regional gov- partition of Poland under the Aus- about the real living conditions of ernment last year (1993) actually trians and the Prussians and then people in those countries: - only that apologised for being unable to get rid under prewar and Communist Po- they are going to find overseas travel of the trams - the mainstay of the land into a major industrial area that prohibltive. produced 10% of the worlds black public transport system - until some- time past the year 2000. The urgent coal, and much of the global output This important point accepted, it is need is of course, to upgrade and of greenhouse gases. It is a vast con- nonetheless true that massive oppor- extend, rather than get rid of, what glomeration of genteely decaying tunities exist for improvements in was once an excellent tram system. 19th century apartments whose fa- energy use efficiency, especially in To keep things in perspective how- cades turn an interesting shade of the wasteful industrial sector. At the dark green/black because of the pol- ever, it must be said that the system same time, those areas in which the lution, of vast monolithic Commu- in Katowice would have to deterio- right things were in fact done by the nist- era apartment blocks, gigantic rate much further in order to reach Communist regime, notably the and decrepit mines and steelworks, the abysmal levels of public trans- widespread use of industrial waste port in Australian cities. railways, and elephantine piping. heat for other industries and domes-

Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 13 April / May 1995 tic use (you can see the elephantine and the energy efficiency of the and improve the Communist legacy. pipes all over Poland, especially country may in fact deteriorate. It is the one area where that legacy round Katowice) - should be seen as is most dangerous. things to build on and improve. The Nuclear power is one area in which danger is that in the headlong rush governments and their western part- John Hallam. to capitalism, they will be forgotten, ners perversely do want to build on

The Arrogance of Resistance.

I listened attentively as a federal Was it arrogant of Martin Luther laws duly enacted for India by the magistrate, explaining her guilty King, I wondered , to put his own mother of parliaments? verdict, lectured me on the "arro- beliefs above the democratically ar- gance" of people like me who place rived at Jim Crow laws of the duly And what might Magistrate Kath- their beliefs above laws democrati- elected legislators of Alabama, Mis- leen A. Jaudzemis think of the arro- cally arrived at by elected repre- sissippi and Georgia? gance of Emma Goldman and Susan sentatives of the people. B. Anthony and other suffragettes Was it arrogant of Mohandas whose violation of duly enacted all- Gandhi to violate colonial salt tax male voting laws helped open up the

Radiation Like Death Comes Unexpectedly

The Radioactive Fallout of Enron Power Project

A Study of Radon Concentration reduces considerably when the gas mended by the International Com- Released into the Atmosphere due is processed to remove impurities mission on Radiological Protection to Burning of Natural Gas is a tide and fractionated to recover the for the general public. of a paper by M. C. Subba Ramu, T. heavier hydrocarbons. In this proc- S. Muralidharan and K. G. Vohra ess about 30 to 70 percent radon At a time when the newly installed of the Division of Radiological Pro- gets removed from natural gas. government in Maharashtra is in tection of Bhabha Atomic Re- the process of rethinking the Enron search Centre. In this paper they Shri Ashok Kumar from Bombay, Project, it might be prudent for it to present their observation and esti- has raised this issue in connection take this hitherto 'unknown' fact mate the dose received by a by- with the proposed Enron power into consideration. Over the long stander due to burning of natural plant at Dabhol on the Konkan term, this would be of greater con- gas by the Tata Thermal Power Sta- coast of Maharashtra. Again de- sequence then the back-breaking tion and the Rashtriya Chemicals pending on various factors like financial burden imposed by the and Fertilisers at Trombay. They wind, precipitation and geographi- project. find the dose varies from season to cal features, previous processing of season between 0.04 to 2.6 rems per gas to remove radon, etc. people in Contact: R. Ashok Kumar year depending on various factors the vicinity of the plant might be in like wind, precipitation, geographi- for a radiation dose of 0.4 rem to 25 Type III / 36 E Tata Colony, cal features, etc. They also state in rems per year in addition to other Mohd Rd. this paper that the release of radon pollution burdens. 25 rems per year Chembur, Bombay 400074 due to the burning of natural gas is 2500 times the dose recom-

April / May 1995 14 Anumukti Volume 8 Number 5 American political system, includ- product of legislative decisions solitary confinement in Israel's ing the judiciary, to women? democratically arrived at, as the maximum security prison. Vanunu court contends, then civil resistance believed that if Israel was to take The thought of those earlier practi- would indeed be an act of arro- this awesome step into nuclear doners of civil resistance brought me gance. But they are not. Such laws weapons, thereby triggering a nu- comfort as the magistrate droned are conceived in secret, born in ig- clear arms race with its Arab neigh- on, citing with satisfaction the rul- norance, and shaped by vested inter- bours , then the decision to do so ing of federal appeals court which ests which leave little room for fair should be democratically arrived at, upheld the conviction of four peace and honest debate. not taken in the deepest secrecy. activists who had cited "God's law" in defence of the disabling of a Mis- Just as Jim Crow and the all-male So is it, too, with Fr. Frank Cordaro, souri missile site capable of launch- suffrage once rested on the bedrock Brian Terrell, and others who have ing a 1.2 megaton hydrogen bomb of legal assumptions unchallenged taken the lead in shining a light into toward Soviet Russia. by generations of law-makers, so do the darkness of the Strategic Com- the assumptions underlying today's mand (StratCom), field headquar- Magistrate Jaudzemis was right. The national secret laws. Missing from ters for US nuclear war-waging by higher court's ruling against the the votes over nuclear weapons sys- breaking the trespass laws that pro- 1984 "Silo Pruning Hooks"(Carl tems and the billions of dollars ap- tect Offutt Air Force Base near and Paul Kabat, Helen Woodson, propriated for them is any here. Although StratCom's role and Larry Cloud-Morgan) governed consideration of the realities of nu- and mission are a matter of public her decision in my case. Interna- clear weapons and consequences of record, the global implications of its tional laws forbidding crimes their use. existence are in every protected against humanity did not justify my sense a secret to Congress and the trespass at the nearby Air Force base Policies based on pre-nuclear war- American people. which houses the headquarters of fighting concepts form the basis of the federal government's nuclear laws that authorise the building of Was it an "undue display of self-im- war-fighting capabilities. many thousands of nuclear war- portance" for Mordechai Vanunu to heads, some of them ten thousand take it upon himself to tell his fellow And she was right, I believe, in hold- times more powerful than the biggest citizens of the potential nuclear ing me accountable by sentencing conventional bomb ever dropped in oblivion prepared for them by their me to the maximum of six months (a World War II. Can it be said that government in strictest secrecy? modest penalty in comparison with such mindless genocidal policies are the punishment meted out these the product of laws democratically Was it "overbearing haughtiness" of days to many for lesser crimes). arrived at? Or does not the absence Frank Cardaro and his colleague of rational discussions - in the halls Brian Terrell to put their bodies on Like King, Gandhi, the suffragettes of Congress and in the body politic - the line at StratCom in hope of and others who break the law out of constitute a form of secrecy as effec- reaching the national conscience principle, I don't expect to escape tive as the strictest censorship laws? on the terrible secret within? responsibility. In fact, it is the pun- ishment which sometimes paves the Secrecy is the enemy of democracy. Or are those two just humble proph- way for changes in the law. This That is the point made by an ex- ets of a reality that may some day be willingness to "take the rap" is what traordinary activist, Mordechai as unquestioned as the truths of transforms arrogance into humility Vanunu, a former nuclear techni- Gandhi, King, Emma Goldman, and and makes civil resistance a poten- cian who risked his freedom by Susan B. Anthony. tially powerful instrument of social breaking the law eight years ago to change. tell a British newspaper about Is- Either way, I am happy to be in their rael's secret nuclear weapons facility company. If laws sanctioning nuclear weapons where he had once worked. For this and nuclear war were truly the he is paying the price of 18 years in from Sam Day

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The Disaster Last Time

The whole, last page went missing. 11 The public right to My fault and I am sorry. The article information must be to suffer amputation concerned the codified and given resolutions passed at the seminar on concrete form in terms of Anumukti Team: "Nuclear Safety and the Public" or- entitlements, as an Kamala, Ranjana, Sahadevan, Sanghamitra, ganised by INTACH in Delhi on intrinsic component of the Sumesh, Surendra, Virendra, Yasmin process of approval of February 3rd and 4th. Published by S. Gadekar for Sampoorna nuclear energy projects, in Kranti Vidyalaya and printed at Tha Parijat The following are some of the miss- particular, Printry, Ahmadabad

ing resolutions: Printed Book i) the right to appraise the 10. In view of the rigorous clinical tests need and rationale of the carried out at Rawatbhata, and the project. statistically significant increase in incidence of diseases and deformities ii) the right to appraise the found amongst those living in the hazards and associated risks immediate vicinity of the plant, an to the public. independent study should be initiated to determine the safety iii) the right to examine and set implications of various plant opera- safety standards and norms. tion practices.