on-lhe-scene report cover-up at Three Mile Island

APRIL 10, 1979 25 CENTS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE

Why labor should take the lead

The following statement was released one at Three Mile Island. But the administra­ that radiation levels are "quite safe for all April 1 by Andrew Pulley and Nora Da­ tion did nothing-except to hush it up. Just as concerned" and that the top priority of the nielson. Pulley is the Socialist Workers the government has hushed up and lied about authorities is "the health and safety of the Party candidate for mayor of Chicago the hazards of nuclear power for decades. people." and a member of the United Steelworkers So now the accident the public was always Yet the day before, speaking in Wisconsin, of America Local 1066. Danielson, SWP assured was "impossible" has happened. The Carter vowed that nuclear power plants "will mayoralty candidate in Philadelphia, is a horrible possibility remains that a meltdown be continued." member of the Brotherhood of Railway or explosion could still send deadly clouds of The disaster at Three Mile Island proves and Airline Clerks Lodge 518. radiation over the surrounding cities and coun­ that nuclear energy is totally unsafe, that tryside. "Atoms for Peace" is a myth, and that all The Carter administration and the Demo­ Even if this most terrible outcome is averted, nuclear reactors and processing plants, both cratic and Republican parties bear full respon­ no one knows how many people, including commercial and military, should be closed sibility for jeopardizing millions of lives in the workers exposed in the plant itself, have been down immediately. Three Mile Island nuclear accident. harmed by the radiation that has already As one worker who lives in the shadow of Government inspectors knew months ago escaped. the Three Mile Island plant said, "It's like about problems in the cooling systems of On April 1 Carter flew into Middletown, living with a rattlesnake. Sooner or later it's Babcock and Wilcox reactors, including the Pennsylvania, just long enough to proclaim Continued on next page campaign to improve their competitive posi­ tion by squeezing more profits out of workers ... time bomb in this country. Continued from preceding page As every worker knows, they have launched going to bite you. You just don't.know when." a war on many fronts to accomplish this. It State and federal officials; the Metropolitan includes speedup, reversing on-the-job health Edison Company and its owner, General Pub­ and safety rules, forced overtime, higher taxes, lic Utilities; the Nuclear Regulatory Commis­ and cutbacks in social services. sion; and the scientist-hirelings of the employ­ Wages are held down by Carter's 7 percent ers have lied from the beginning about what is guidelines while prices soar at 15 percent a happening. year. They are lying now. They contradict each Laws protecting the environment are rolled other, they contradict themselves, and they back under the pretense of fighting inflation. refuse to give the American people straight The employers are out to weaken and if answers. Scarcely a person now believes a possible destroy the unions-the chief obstacle word they say about this accident. to their goals. Thousands who live near the crippled reac­ Part of this offensive is the rulers' attempt to tor are showing how much confidence they prepare us to accept the use of American have in the official promises of safety-they military might to defend their interests in are fleeing the area. other countries-especially where they are From its very beginning in the 1940s, the under attack now by the workers and peasants development of nuclear energy has been of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle cloaked in secrecy. The dangers have been East. either denied or downplayed. The nuclear industry is part of the employ­ Why the secrecy? Why the lies? ers' war drive from top to bottom. The nuclear The capitalist class doesn't dare tell the industry originated with the race to develop truth about nuclear energy any more than and use the atomic bomb during World War II. they do about how they plan shortages and fix Today it services the entire nuclear arsenal, prices. To tell the truth, they would have to 1\le'l~ MI"I(A Nf. which the Pentagon sees as essential to its war say: a1ms. "We took billions of dollars from taxes paid CARTER: Tells Middletown residents not to worry, So we are faced with seventy operating by working people to finance the research and while he pushes for more nukes around the country. commercial reactors-each capable of repeat­ development of nuclear weapons and nuclear ing the crisis of the Three Mile Island plant­ energy. along with scores of processing plants, reac­ "We knew all about the hazards. But we At the same time he promises to keep us tors, and waste depots directly related to suppressed or censored reports on the likeli­ informed, Carter has imposed an unprece­ military purposes. hood of catastrophic accidents, car.cer epidem­ dented censorship order barring the Progres­ ics, birth deformities, and other consequences sive magazine from printing an article about The disaster at Three Mile Island will give we didn't want the public to know about. the hydrogen bomb. The Democrats and Re­ tremendous impetus to the rapidly developing "We fired scientists who got too nosy. We publicans are desperately pushing for more antinuclear movement-not only in this coun­ didn't hesitate to kill people like Karen Silk­ secrecy, not less. try but throughout the world. Millions, maybe wood who threatened to blow the whistle on The Socialist Workers Party says that the tens of millions, more people are now con­ the nuclear danger. entire record from both government and pri­ vinced that nuclear power should be stopped. "We need nuclear weapons to police the vate industry on nuclear energy-every secret Protests have already begun, and we can be world for U.S. corporate interests. study and hearing, every technical and finan­ sure the actions planned for later this spring "And there are big profits to be made from cial detail, every medical record-should be will be much larger than originally expected. nuclear energy." opened up for public scrutiny and debate. The Socialist Workers Party is participating This is what the employers and their biparti­ The labor movement should take the lead in in and helping to make these actions as san representatives in Washington would say fighting for this. Meanwhile nuclear power successful as possible. The solidarity the Ger­ if they told the truth. But they don't. should be stopped cold. man antinuke demonstrators expressed this In his Middletown speech, Carter declared Just as the doubletalk about what happened week in their slogan, "We all live in Pennsyl­ he would take personal responsibility for "tho­ at Three Mile Island reveals the destructive vania!" should be the watchword for all of us. roughly informing the American people" about and antidemocratic nature of capitalist rule, so The key to success for the forces organizing the lessons of the disaster. Democrats and do the disastrous implications of the accident. against nuclear power is to link up with those Republicans in Congress are already talking Three Mile Island is not an exceptional inci­ in the labor movement who are opposed to about a blue-ribbon investigation. dent. It epitomizes the nightmarish prospects nuclear power and to win the entire labor We have no reason to trust those who have of capitalist society today. movement to this fight. That's where the covered up the nuclear danger for all these The employing class and its insatiable drive strength lies to make this fight victorious. years. for profits are taking us down a road to catas­ The antinuke resolutions adopted by Meat trophe: Cutters District 2, by the United Auto Workers Runaway inflation and mass layoffs can in Ohio, by Steelworkers District 31 in overnight shatter the lives of millions of Chicago-Gary-along with the formation of working people. antinuke committees in some unions-show Monopoly-rigged shortages of key commodi­ the growing sentiment inside the labor move­ ties can trigger price explosions. ment. Young workers will be sent to die in other The struggle against nuclear power and all lands-not to defend their own interests, but its hazards is part of the overall struggle those of the bosses. against the capitalist catastrophe that threat­ Imperialist wars threaten to lead us to a ens the entire working class. nuclear holocaust. That catastrophe can be prevented only if This threat of catastrophe is sharpened by the working class organizes itself and its allies the fact that the capitalists in this country to take political power away from the capital­ face stiffer competition from their counterparts ist rulers, who are willing to risk the fate of in Western Europe and Japan. Since the 1974- humanity in their drive for profits. 75 depression, they have been on a stepped-up To carry out this struggle for power the working class will have to break from the war parties, the nuclear energy parties, the capital­ ist parties-the Democratic and Republican twins. Join the fight ... We need a labor party based on our own organizations, the unions. A labor party will • for a labor party, for a government run by Name and in the Interests of working people be an antiwar party, an antinuclear party, a Address ------­ party that fights for the rights of Blacks, • for a society free from racism, sexism, City ------latinos, and women. inflation, and unemployment State ______Zip There is a force greater than nuclear power: 'the political power of the labor movement. Telephone ------­ • for a world without war and devastation of That is the power and authority of the Send to: SWP, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New our environment overwhelming majority of the American peo­ York 10014. ple. Once it is mobilized to take control out of the hands of the profit-hungry minority, it can 0 ~~~~~~: ~~ ~2,;;ri~~r a copy of Prospects :r • th S~P immediately close down all the nuclear plants 0 I want to join the ~ocialist.Workers Party JOin e and dismantle all the nuclear weapons. 0 Please send more mformat1on Three Mile Island shows the urgency of the task. Nothing less than the survival of human­ ity is at stake. 2 Steelworkers exP-lain Labor's stake in fight against nuke threat By Dick McBride My union, Steelworkers Local 1010 Workers exposed to radiation at the at Inland Steel in East Chicago, Indi­ Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New ana, has filed a petition with the Hampshire die from leukemia more Nuclear Regulatory Commission to than four times as frequently as the deny a permit to the Bailly nuclear national average. They die from all plant that is under construction near cancers at twice the national average. Gary. We expect to be joined in this by In the western United States, ura­ the steelworkers of Local 6787 at Beth­ nium miners suffer disproportionately lehem's Burns Harbor plant, which is from lung cancer and related diseases. right next to the Bailly site. The Karen Silkwood case is reveal­ Local 6787 is also considering filing ing how nuclear workers risk their a lawsuit challenging the Bailly eva­ lives daily in unsafe plants. cuation plan-which would require Now the Three Mile Island nuclear that some steelworkers remain at accident threatens the lives and prop­ Burns Harbor to keep the blast furnace erty of thousands of working people going if there was a nuclear accident! and their families throughout south· Last year USWA District 31, which eastern Pennsylvania. represents 118,000 steelworkers in the On April 1, four days after the acci­ Chicago-Gary area, went on record dent at Three Mile Island began, I opposing the development of nuclear talked with Norton Sandler and Geoff power. District 31 Environmental Di­ Mirelowitz. Both work at Bethlehem rector Mike Olszanski told me April 1 Steel's Sparrows Point plant in that the Three Mile Island accident "is Baltimore-the nearest metropolitan all anybody is talking about" in the area to Three Mile Island. steel plants around Gary and Chicago. "I had my radio on at work Thurs­ "People are coming back and saying day night when they announced that 'Hey, you were right,' when the district they were considering evacuating a took its antinuclear position last year. million people from around Harris­ There were a few people around who burg," Sandler said. were skeptical at that time, but now "The first reaction was jokes-which it's clear that an overwhelming major­ way is the wind blowing, is your car ity of people feel we were right.'' gassed up, and so on. But as the news Other unions have also gone on kept coming in, people got more se­ record against nuclear power in recent nous. months. "What came up over and over in the On March 5 the executive board of plant," Sandler said, "was the need for District 2 of the Amalgamated Meat workers to regulate and control things Cutters and Butcher Workmen un­ like nuclear power-take them out of animously voted to oppose "the con­ the hands of the rich. Because the struction, manufacture, operation, ex­ people who own these power plants portation or proliferation of additional now are willing to sacrifice a million nuclear power plants." lives rather than tell the truth." Meat Cutters District 2 includes the Mirelowitz told of a discussion some state of Pennsylvania and seven other three weeks before the Pennsylvania mid-Atlantic states, as well as Puerto accident. "One person had a friend or a Rico. relative who worked at a nuclear plant Last October a United Auto Workers and had told him how safe they are. So Community Action Program conven­ his idea was that nuclear power is OK. tion in Ohio adopted a motion citing "I was on with the same crew Friday the dangers of nuclear power and night [March 30-two days after the calling on state officials to "enact an accident] and someone said to the guy immediate moratorium on licensing who had been talking about how safe and construction of nuclear power the plants are, 'Now look!' plants in Ohio, if definite scientific "And he answered, 'Yeah, we ought safeguards cannot be provided, and to just shut them all down.'" Militant/Mike Moser implement a procedure for phasing out Mirelowitz said Baltimore steel· Big business reaps huge profits from dangerous nuclear plants. Steelworkers are all existing facilities now operating or workers are fast becoming aware of joining the fight to 'just shut them all down.' under construction in the state." two things: "First, everybody knows These and similar resolutions mark that the Susquehanna River flows into a welcome break from the pronuclear, Chesapeake Bay. And the other thing pro-employer positions expressed by everybody knows is that there's a with the governor," Sandler said, "and George Meany and the AFL-CIO hie­ nuclear plant right near Baltimore at that the governor had said things were rarchy. They point the way toward Dick McBride is a member of United Calvert Cliffs." under control. Then everybody was increased involvement by organized Steelworkers Local 1010 at Inland "People laughed when the radio an­ really ready to head for their cars and labor in the movement to end nuclear Steel in East Chicago, Indiana. nounced that Carter was in contact get out of town!" power and nuclear weapons. Tragedy from 1950s Utah nuke tests By Ed Berger found the leukemia death rate in south­ buy the silence of the sheep ranchers will cause cancer if inhaled. SALT LAKE CITY-Authorities are ern Utah between 1950 and 1964 was by offering to set up a desert range Other shorter-lived radioactive ele­ telling the people of Pennsylvania not 50 percent higher than expected. nutrition research project. Brower was ments were also found in the soil. to worry, that fallout from the Three The 1965 Utah leukemia studies were a county agricultural agent in the area Officials sought to minimize the dan­ Mile Island plant isn't dangerous. Ra­ hidden from public view for fourteen at the time. gers of these poisons by saying they diation levels are low and harmless, years. Federal agencies also conspired One young woman in southern Utah were now far less radioactive than industry-paid scientists say on TV. to keep other evidence out of the spot­ told Brower her hair fell out after a when they were first found. Try telling that to the fallout victims light. radiation cloud passed over her home. That means, of course, that Utah in Utah. In 1953, for example, 4,300 sheep She also developed lesions that healed residents have been subjected to abnor­ Between 1951 and 1958 the U.S. that had been grazing downwind from only slowly. mally and dangerously high levels of atomic tests in Nevada died. Some of radioactivity all these years. military set off at least ninety-seven Dr. John Gofman, once the AEC's More than 400 people-surviving atomic explosions above ground in the animals had been as far as 120 leading expert on the biological effects cancer victims and relatives of those Nevada. The radioactive debris fell on miles from the test site. of radiation, says that the government who have died-have filed claims Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. The sheep received a dose of radioac­ canceled atomic tests if the wind was against the federal government. tive iodine up to 1,000 times greater blowing toward Los Angeles or Las Children born in southern Utah dur­ Pam Burchett, Socialist Workers than the maximum allowable for hu­ Vegas-but not if it was blowing to­ ing those seven years died from leuke­ Party candidate for mayor of Salt Lake mans. Ewes had spontaneous abor­ ward sparsely populated areas of Utah mia two and a half times as frequently City, is demanding full compensation tions and showed burn-like lesions on and Nevada. as children born before or after. for all the fallout victims. Throughout Utah, approximately fifty the face, neck, and ears. The majority of lambs were born dead or stunted, As recently as 1974 the plutonium "The government should provide children died from leukemia who other­ level in Utah topsoil was found to be free, lifetime medical care for those wise would be alive today. and ewes died either during lambing or a few days later. 3.8 times higher than anywhere else in whose lives it has so callously blight­ This was one of the grisly findings of The Atomic Energy Commission the country. Plutonium, one of the ed,'' she told the Militant. a study conducted_ by Dr. Joseph Lyon, said the sheep died of natural causes. most fiercely radioactive of all ele­ "The cover-up of the effects of the a University of Utah epidemiologist, ments, is a byproduct of atomic explo­ atom tests must end," Burchet said. and three associates. Dr. Stephan Brower, a Brigham sions and certain types of reactors. It "The time is long overdue to open up The Lyon study confirmed a sup­ Young University professor, charges is used in the production of nuclear all the records of the federal atomic pressed 1965 government report that that the federal government sought to weapons. A speck of plutonium dust agencies for public inspection."

MILITANT SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT/APRIL 10, 1979 3 ver -up at Three Mile 1st By Nancy Cole news conference at Middletown's Bo­ and Arnold Weissberg rough Hall. MIDDLETOWN, Pa., April 1-Fear It is "quite safe for all concerned," he and disbelief grip central Pennsylva­ told townspeople, who have suffered nia as the possibility of a devastating through a mire of confusing reports core meltdown at a nuclear plant sev­ and outright lies from plant and gov­ eral miles from here has yet to be ruled ernment officials. out. Unabashedly taking the side of the And anger. No one told people here nuclear industry, Carter proclaimed it that anything like this could happen. "too early yet to be making judgments And now that it has, no one is telling about the lessons of this nuclear inci­ them what is going on. dent." All they really know is that at any "Well, the people of this town are time they may be evacuated from their passing judgment," Middletown resi­ homes on two hours' notice. Thou­ dent Darlene Snyder told the Militant sands have already fled, in addition to shortly after Carter's appearance here. several hundred pregnant women and "And so are the ones over in Royal­ children staying in nearby evacuation ton, especially the ones in the five-mile centers. [radius of the plant]-let alone my The federal government has refused mother down in York County and to take any steps to prevent a recur­ people all over the world." rence of the Three Mile Island acci­ dent. There are now seventy-two nu­ 'He didn't say anything' clear power plants licensed to operate As for Carter's assurances of safety, in this country, many of them of a type Snyder declared, "That's about all he similar to Three Mile Island. Six are did say. He didn't say anything about identical to it. what's happening up there. He could Both President Carter and Nuclear have stayed and answered some ques­ Regulatory Commission Director of tions, but he rushed right out." Operations Harold Denton have re­ Snyder, wearing a T-shirt saying, fused to order the immediate shutdown "Middletown Is Where It's At," is of a single reactor. "scared the thing's going to blow up" but reluctant to pick up and leave 'Postpone the question' because of the disruption for her fam­ Denton, responding to a reporter's ily and her husband's job. question at a news conference, said he "I think they ought to shut them all 140,000 people live within ten miles of runaway nuclear plant wanted to "postpone the question of down," Snyder firmly said. And if they the other six [identical] operating reac­ try to open up Three Mile Island tors until I have a better feel for what again, she says, they're going to have happened here." trouble from Middletown residents. the plant," a resident told the Militant. School student Ann Chapman. "I don't How long it will take Denton to That is the prevailing view here, "This really woke up everybody." want them to open any of them. And I acquire "a better feel" remains un­ where few people paid much attention "Seems like they didn't take any­ don't think they're telling us all that's known. Meanwhile, another Three to the four gigantic towers that loom body into consideration," Christine going on." Mile Island could happen any time. over the surrounding community­ Cox said. Cox lives in Steelton, a town Plain speaking and truth disap Seeking to shore up Washington's until the March 28 bulletin informed adjacent to a giant Bethlehem Steel peared long before Three Mile Island rapidly waning credibility, President residents of a general emergency at the mill within ten miles of Three Mile began leaking radioactivity. Carter visited the facility April 1 and plant. Island. then held a short, no-time-for-questions "We'd drive by and not even notice "Get rid of it," said Middletown High The cover-up The cover-up began three monthe ago, after a Nuclear Regulatory Com­ mission inspector filed a report on the Carter censors nuke data Three Mile Island plant's cooling By Dick Roberts not need second-hand information New York Times, the magazine system-the failure of which would On March 26 a federal district gathered by a reporter. "argues that the information in the lead to the present disaster. judge in Milwaukee granted a gov' Governments that do not manu­ article is needed by the American The NRC inspector recommendea ernment mQtion for an injunction facture nuclear weapons have ruled public to permit intelligent discus­ that problems with the cooling system prohibiting the Progressive maga­ this out for political and financial sion of policy issues pertaining to be brought to the attention of tht zine from publishing an article on reasons. They also are not going to the possible d11ngers to the environ­ Atomic Safety and Licensing Boarc the hydrogen bomb. learn anything from a magazine ment of nuclear production and un­ He was overruled by his superiors. This sweeping denial of freedom of article that the government itself derground testing, health hazards to So, early on the morning of Marcl the press-unprecedented under the admits has no secret or classified workers in nuclear plants and issues 28, a steam pump apparently failed U.S. Constitution-is intimately information in it. in the strategic arms talks." triggering the failure of another pum; linked to the disaster at Three Mile The real target of this kind of The democratic rights of working that circulates cooling water to th Island. For it is the government's secrecy is the American public. In people-to free speech, a free press, reactor's core. policy to envelop in secrecy all that the government's view, working peo­ access to the truth, and the freedom At 6:50 a.m. Metropolitan Edism has to do with the production of ple are not to be trusted with the to organize and act in our own declared a "general emergency." Th nuclear power and weaponry. facts about nuclear production. We interests-are more and more intol­ state police relayed the declaratior This is passed off as keeping se­ might learn too much about the erable to the capitalist government. adding that no radiation had bee: crets from foreign powers. But that hazards involved. But as Three Mile Island shows. released. is clearly absurd. Foreign govern­ In defending itself, Progressive these are exactly the rights we must At 9 a.m., Met Ed also said there ha( ments that themselves manufacture magazine emphasizes this aspect of have to prevent a future nuclear been no radiation leak. sophisticated nuclear weapons do the case. According to the March 24 catastrophe. An hour later, "no leak" became "o small leak."

Intercontinental •+ M1M tntn': m®.'~ w; H 11 tm~ Help spread the truth ... ~P~OC I, '07t "'CUlT. •ou.>Mf O... NU.. BE~ 1l Press/ TH£ MILITANT The big-business news media have joined with the Carter administration and the lnprecor nuclear industry to conceai the facts about the Three Mile Island crisis. It's part· of A weekly magazine of interna­ their ongoing cover-up of the deadly hazards posed by the entire nuclear industry. Runaway inflation: The Militant-which doesn't have the backing of big business or millions in tional political and news analysis. advertising revenues-is making every effort to get out the truth. Our team of how we can tight back Three months, $6. Send 75 Socialist urges: Support the Teamsters! eyewitness reporters in the Harrisburg area is exposing the government-industry lies cents for sample copy. and telling what workers there are thinking and doi11g about the disaster. P.O. Box 116 Village Station, New This special effort places a big financial burden on a working-class weekly. We York, N.Y. 10014 need your donations. And we need your help in getting out the Militant to working people from coast to coast. Won't you give us a hand? Perspectiva

The Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014 Mundial D Enclosed is a donation of $ ____ A Spanish-language socialist biweekly, carrying news of the D I'd like to subscribe (one year, $15; six months, $8.50; ten weeks, $2). Enclosed is $ ___ antinuclear movement and other struggles. Three months, $2. Send Name 50 cents for sample copy. Address ------P.O. Box 314 Village Station, New City, State & Zip York, N.Y. 10014.

4 and: on-the-scene report · side. The venting continued for ninety Nobel Prize-winning biologist Ernest Sternglass lashed out at the minutes. George Wald, speaking at a Harrisburg government's and Met Ed's efforts to Thursday night the Nuclear Regula- news conference Thursday organized minimize health hazards of radioactive tory Commission chimed in. "The dan- by the Mobilization for Survival, ex- emissions. ger is over for people off site," the NRC plained that "every dose of radiation is "The community should stand up declared. an overdose. A little does a little harm, and scream," Sternglass said. "This is But the next morning, an NRC and more does more harm." a long-term, ·creeping thing. People spokesperson admitted there remained Federal standards require that aver- don't just fall down like flies." a "potential" for a disastrous core age yearly exposure for the entire A group called Three-Mile-Alert is meltdown. population be limited to 170 millirems. tentatively planning a demonstration Meanwhile, Thursday night, Met Ed With Three Mile Island emissions be- for Sunday, April 8, at 2 p.m. on the dumped 400,000 gallons of radioactive ing measured in adjoining Goldsboro steps ofthe state capitol in Harrisburg. water into the Susquehanna River at 20 millirems an hour, the potential For more information call (717) 233- without telling the public. Just hours for dangerous exposure is high. 3072. earlier, the NRC vigorously denied the Keith Kirk, a West Virginia physicist Last year, Three Mile Island was dumping would take place. who came here at the request of anti- cited seventeen times for safety viola- nuclear power activists, took his own tions. None were deemed "serious" by 'Why should we tell you?' readings on Friday morning and found federal officials. When asked by reporters Friday why some as high as 7,000 times the normal So now at least 140,000 people-the there had been no public announce­ levels. number living within a ten-mile ment, Met Ed Vice-president John But Saturday morning, top NRC radius-face a nuclear disaster. Herbein arrogantly declared, "I don't official Harold Denton reassured that As disabled steelworker Edward know why we need to tell you every­ the odds against anyone getting Keitch commented, "We'd better thing we do." cancer were "five to one." straighten this out before we get That has served as the motto for Unless, of course, there's a melt- killed." both government and Met Ed officials down. Then, Denton said, "a certain during the entire crisis. number" of cancers could be expected. On Friday the cover-up fell apart. Met Ed officials vented radioactive Antinuke activists steam several times, driving radiation That the cover-up failed is due in readings above the plant up to 1,200 large part to the efforts of the antinu­ millirems an hour. clear activists in the Harrisburg area Gov. Richard Thornburgh "advised" and their success in bringing the nu­ everyone within a ten-mile radius to clear power issue before the public. stay indoors and keep the windows "This is the last nuclear accident the shut. He also "advised" pregnant American people will tolerate," Chaun­ women and young children to leave the cey Kepford of the Environmental area. Coalition on Nuclear Power told a Also on Friday, the Nuclear Regula­ news conference March 30. Forty-five minutes later, Lt. Gov. tory Commission announced that there Kepford's group has petitioned the William Scranton, Jr., joined the cover­ was, indeed, a risk of a fuel meltdown. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to up. "There is and was no danger to The effort to keep "the Harrisburg close all pressurized water reactors­ public health and safety ... there was Syndrome" under wraps had failed. about half of all U.S. nuclear reactors. 3. small release of radiation to the But the government still won't talk The group charges that the Three Mile environment. All safety equipment about the long-term health hazards Island accident showed that these functioned properly," Scranton as­ from the radioactive emissions. reactors all violate federal safety serted. How much radiation have area resi­ standards. Fifteen minutes after that, the Three dents been exposed to? What effect will At another news conference on \1ile Island plant began automatically it have on them? It's impossible to get March 29 sponsored by the Mobiliza­ venting radioactive steam to the out- a straight answer. tion for Survival, radiation expert Dr. SAFE. LEYEL. Nuclear refugees-angry and scared HERSHEY, Pa., Apr. 1-The Her­ suggested to them that Three Mile They will always worry now about conference brought more people out shey Arena is usually the home of a Island might put their lives, their the children, and never know if it into the streets this afternoon. professional hockey team. But since children's lives, and their homes in can all happen again. "Is the community invited?" asked last Friday, it's the home for danger. -A.W. a resident in the drug store. "I didn't hundreds of refugees from nuclear Many of the refugees fled homes in get my engraved invitation." radiation. Harrisburg, more than ten miles They weren't. Across the street from borough Last Friday, Pennsylvania Gov. from the reactor. Middletown hall, residents gathered on the Richard Thornburgh "suggested" "I've got two children, and I'm not roped-off sidewalk. The crowd grew that pregnant women and young taking any chances," a seven­ youngsters to several hundred by the time Car­ children living within five miles of months-pregnant Black woman from ter arrived. Three Mile Island leave the area. there told me. learn fast "We're just here to see the presi­ Young and old people are espe­ "I'm thinking of them." She added MIDDLETOWN, Pa., April 1- dent, and after that we're getting the cially sensitive to radiation. So are that she was nervous about the idea When residents of this town of hell out of town," a woman told her fetuses. of ever going back to where she had 10,000 picked up their Sunday pa­ child. The two communities nearest the lived. pers at Judy News this morning, One child who hasn't left town is plant are Middletown and Golds­ Truck driver Roberto Gonzalez they were handed a notice from nine-year-old Brent Burger. "We're boro, both small, populated mostly lived thirteen miles from the runa­ Mayor Robert Reid. all ready," he told the Militant. "Our by poor and working people. Both way reactor. But he and his wife and "In the event of an evacuation, car is packed, shoes and every­ are within five miles of Three Mile three children are going to stay in these are the pick-up points for peo­ thing." Island. Hershey, he said. ple who do not have transportation Disasters have a stark way of The state set up emergency facili­ Gonzalez believes the situation at to leave the borough!!!" Eight sites raising consciousness. And that in­ ties for the evacuees at the Hershey Three Mile Island is worse than around town were listed. cludes children in this situation. Arena. Metropolitan Edison and the govern­ Behind the news counter, a "You've got to be crazy to work in It's a makeshift arrangement ment have admitted. woman was explaining over the that place," commented Brent, who down on the hockey rink, leaving no Gonzalez is not the only man in phone to a customer why his paper reels off terms like. "meltdown," privacy for the refugees. Families the place. Many fathers and hus­ hadn't been delivered. "All the kids "contamination," and "gas bubbles" sleep side by side on cots. "Home" is bands came to Hershey with their left town," she said. "You'll have to like his multiplication tables. a small area separated from other families. come in and get your paper." He watches TV a lot lately to learn "homes" by cartons. One of them was a man with three Three miles from the Three Mile the latest news. children, who had worked on con­ Island nuclear plant, Middletown "Yesterday I was watching 'B.J. The Red Cross serves meals. struction at the Three Mile Island has become the focus of interna­ and the Bears' when a news bulletin Showers and the toilets are in the plant. tional attention during the past about [Gov. Richard] Thornburgh's locker rooms normally used by the "They tell you it's safe, but this week. latest evacuation orders came on," hockey teams. makes you wonder," he said. His One-third to one-half of the towns­ he said. Brent's mother works in a Today there were about 100 people family left their Middletown home people have already left. Most clothing factory nearby, his father using the emergency facilities. Red Friday at Thornburgh's suggestion. churches didn't open their doors this in a garage. Cross volunteers said there is a "We're scared," his teen-age morning. A 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew "Me and my whole family think constant turnover as refugees seek daughter said. "Even before they has been in effect since Friday the plant should be shut down for better accommodations. told us to leave. Then we got more night. good," he declared. The people who remain are the scared." Those left on the streets are cease­ And what about the other seventy­ ones who can't afford to go any- Families will continue to sleep lessly approached by reporters-who one in other parts of the country? where else. - under wool emergency blankets, on outnumbered visible residents today "They should all be shut down, all The people I talked to were angry emergency cots, till someone decides by about five to one. of them!" and frightened. No one had ever it's OK for them to go home. Plans for President Carter's news -N.C.

MILITANT SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT/APRIL 10, 1979 5 .From mining to deadl¥ wastes Can nuclear power ever be safe? By Fred Murphy If the melting is not stopped, the tor wastes and reprocessed into fresh The accident at the Three Mile Is­ hundred tons or so of intensely hot fuel fuel elements. But the few reprocessing and nuclear plant has millions of and waste can cause a steam explo­ plants that were built failed miserably, )eople across the country asking, "Can sion, bursting the concrete-and-steel and it is unlikely .that more will be .he nuclear industry ever be made containment building around the reac­ tried in the near future . safe?" tor. Because there are no reprocessing Our answer is, "No." To see why, plants, each nuclear reactor must store let's start with how nuclear plants Meltdown its own spent fuel on site. The deep work. If this is somehow avoided, the fuel pools in which the wastes are kept are Atomic power is based on a unique can still burn straight through the fast filling up. natural process called fission-the bottom of the building. In either event, But even if the fuel could be repro­ splitting of atoms. When a sufficient huge quantities of radioactive debris cessed, the waste problem would re­ quantity of a radioactive fuel-usually are spewed into the environment, con­ main unsolved. uranium or plutonium-is brought to­ taminating a wide area as wind and What cannot be reused must be gether under the proper conditions, water carry the deadly materials away. buried. None of the various proposals this fission becomes self-sustaining A long-suppressed 1964-65 report by for this have in any way been proven and generates large amounts of heat. the Atomic Energy Commission found effective for the extremely long-term that the consequences of such a "melt­ isolation required. How reactors work down" accident could amount to 45,000 So even if the whole nuclear industry Water is pumped through the hot, deaths, 100,000 injuries, long-term con­ were shut down today, the huge quan­ fissioning fuel of a reactor to generate tamination of an area the size of tities of wastes already produced will steam. The steam drives a turbine to Pennsylvania (!), and up to $280 billion pose an enormous problem for genera­ produce electricity. in damage. tions to come. The fission process is halted by The Three Mile Island accident inserting special rods into the fuel core. proves beyond doubt that such catas­ Government bail-out As the rods are pulled out, the reactor trophes can and will happen. Indeed, The only "solution" the Carter ad­ heats up and power production can Carter energy adviser Jack O'Leary ministration has come up with is a begin. told a 1977 conference in Washington plan for the federal government to buy Once a reactor has been in use for a that "between now and the year 2000 used fuel rods from the power compan­ certain period of time, however, insert­ there would be a serious core meltdown ies and take responsibility for dispos­ ing the control rods does not lead to a of a nuclear reactor." ing of them. This lets the industry off complete cooling down of the core, Yet the Carter administration has Inside the reactor. Once In operation, the hook and forces working people to because of the radioactive waste pro­ continued to press for stepped-up use of this core must be continually cooled or foot the bill with our tax dollars. ducts that accumulate there. Reactions nuclear power. a meltdown will occur. Nor has the government proven any in the wastes keep them so hot that more capable of handling wastes than they must continue to be cooled for Fuel ~ycle private industry. In fact, the worst months after being removed from the Nuclear dangers are by no means these poisons completely from the en­ accident involving high-level wastes limited to catastrophic accidents at reactor. vironment. occurred at the military's nuclear com­ So whether the reactor is in opera­ operating plants. Other parts of the The normal operation of nuclear plex in Hanford. In 1973 a tank leaked tion or not, if the flow of cooling water "nuclear fuel cycle" also present grave reactors in power plants results in more than 100,000 gallons of its through the core is blocked-perhaps threats to human life. releases of low-level radiation. There is fiercely radioactive contents into the because of a broken pipe or a pump The cycle begins with the mining growing evidence that the effects of soil only a few miles from the Colum­ failure-the fuel and wastes can over­ and processing of uranium. this have been gravely understated by bia River. That was in addition to heat and melt. Mining releases radioactive radon the government. some 300,000 gallons that have es­ Nuclear plants are equipped with gas into the environment, with deadly A recent study by Dr. Thomas Man­ caped in other accidents at Hanford. several kinds of emergency core cool­ effects. An estimated 16 percent of U.S. cuso of the University of Pittsburgh The Columbia River has been labeled ing systems to guard against such an uranium miners who worked under­ showed that the incidence of cancer "the world's most radioactive river." event. But as the Three Mile Island ground between 1946 and 1968 will and leukemia among workers at the accident shows, their reliability is develop lung cancer as a result of the government's Hanford, Washington, Shut them all down! highly questionable. radon they inhaled in the mines. nuclear weapons complex was consid­ All the dangers described here-from Radioactive residues, called tailings, erably higher than the national aver­ mining, milling, reactors, and wastes­ are a waste product of uranium mill­ age. These workers had been exposed accompany not only the nuclear power ing. Some 26 million tons of these to small doses of radioactivity for industry but also the Pentagon's far­ tailings are piled up at twenty-two extended periods of time. flung apparatus for producing atomic Pa. accident sites throughout the western United bombs and missile warheads. And in States. Gamma rays from the main Wastes-eternal nightmare that lies the danger not only of some not the first radioactive component of these wastes, The most mammoth nuclear problem catastrophic accident but also of the Three Mile Island is not the first radium, can cause cancer. of all involves the intensely radioac­ deliberate, calculated use of nuclear major accident or near-miss at a In a number of areas, the sand-like tive wastes that come from spent nu­ weapons by this country's rulers. That nuclear plant: tailings have been used as building clear fuel and from the government's could bring about the total destruction • December 1952: Partial fuel materials. In Grand Junction, Colo­ bomb-building industry. of life on this planet. meltdown and release of more than rado, for example, an estimated Millions of gallons and tens of thou­ Perhaps someday human beings will 1 million gallons of radioactive 300,000 tons of uranium tailings were sands of cubic feet "of these deadly achieve such giant scientific advances water inside the NRX experimental used in the construction of more than substances have been produced since as to make possible the safe use of test reactor at Chalk River, Onta­ 700 homes, businesses, churches, and the beginning of the Atomic Age. More nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. rio. schools. and more scientists are coming to But it is more likely that a rational, • October 1957: Uranium fire in Colorado Health Department statis­ agree that there is no way to store socialist society will concentrate in­ the British government's weapons­ tics show that residents of Grand them safely and permanently. stead on harnessing safer, simpler, production reactor at Windscale, Junction have an acute leukemia rate The most fiendish waste product of and cleaner energy sources. England. Farmlands were contami­ that is twice the average for the state all, plutonium, remains radioactive for For the present, our survival requires nated over a 200-square-mile area; as a whole. half a million years and must be kept that all nuclear plants be shut down, more than a half-million gallons of As milled uranium is further pro­ isolated from all living things during that the production of nuclear weapons milk poisoned with radioactive io­ cessed into fuel, highly radioactive that entire time. be halted and the present stockpiles dine had to be dumped. matter may be accidentally released. The government and the nuclear destroyed, and that the entire • January 1961: U.S. govern­ Even the most complex procedures industry once had high hopes that the government/big-business nuclear com­ ment test reactor at Idaho Falls, have proven insufficient to isolate plutonium could be removed from reac- plex be dismantled. Idaho, went out of control. Three workers were killed, one of whom was impaled on the reactor ceiling by a control rod. containment structure • October 1966: Partial melt­ ocean down at the Fermi breeder reactor near Detroit. Nuclear explosion was narrowly averted. • March 1975: Fire at Browns Ferry plant in Alabama destroyed control cables for many safety de­ vices, including emergency core cooling system. By rigging up a makeshift cooling apparatus, oper­ ators managed to avert a melt­

down. condensor cooling water These are some, but not all, of the most dramatic nuclear mishaps. In a recent two-year period, there were some 2,000 "reportable" accidents - at nuclear plants in the United States alone. Susanna Natti Pressurized water reactor, similar to the one at Three Mile Island

6 ENERGY PROFIT DRIVE Why Washington pushes nuclear power By Dick Roberts Through their manipulation of world oil supplie ; As word of new radioactive leakage at the Three during the Iranian oil strikes in the last quarter < Mile Island plant came over the wires March 30, 1978-in which they promoted an oil "shortage Energy Secretary James Schlesinger was present­ scare, although the evidence is that no shortag,· ing the Carter administration's viewpoint on nu­ ever existed-the five top U.S. oil companies reape : clear power to a congressional committee in Wash­ the following profit increases: Exxon, up 48 percen ington. Gulf, up 45 percent; Mobil, up 10 percent; Standar ' Nuclear power "continues to be an essential Oil of California, up 33 percent; and Texaco, up 7: element" in the nation's drive for energy indepen­ percent. dence, Schlesinger said. He declared that the "his­ The oil companies have another reason to fostt·r toric record" of nuclear power was "excellent." He massive oil imports at this time: they want to pump said the risks in light-water reactors like that on this oil out of the Middle East before more revolt'­ Three Mile Island were "relatively trivial" when tionary upheavals like in Iran threaten to take it compared to coal or oil generating plants. out of their control. Just before the Three Mile Island disaster began, As to reserves in the United States, in 1974 the the Carter administration was evidently planning Ford Foundation's "Energy Policy Project" calcu­ to launch a major offensive in favor of nuclear lated that there are 200-400 billion barrels of undi;;­ power production. The cover was to be the new covered recoverable onshore and offshore oil here in "energy crisis" scare Washington has tried to whip addition to what is already known. The upper figure up around the Iranian revolution. Major articles in exceeds the entire known reserves of the Middle the business press outlined the need for such a East. campaign. For natural gas, the Ford Foundation's figures "One by one, the lights are going out for the U.S. were much higher: 1,000 to 2,000 trillion cubic feet. nuclear power industry," Business Week magazine Present U.S. natural gas production is less than 1 complained in a special report December 25. "Reac­ percent of the upper figure. tor orders have plummeted from a high of 41 in 1973 to zero this year." Coal Fortune magazine began a series of articles with In addition, there are immense reserves of coal. In the headline: "It's time to end the holy war over fact the oil companies themselves have bought up nuclear power." "Today," said Fortune, "the U.S. some of the largest coal companies, as well as much gets 12% percent of its electric power from seventy­ uranium, in order to extend their control of energy two nuclear generating plants. This is already resources. Today oil companies mine 17 percent of enough to make a vital difference when foreign oil the coal and 25 percent of the uranium in the supplies are pinched or when coal miners stage a United States. lengthy strike." The railroad companies also own large amounts of coal. Carter plan Continental Oil owns Consolidation Coal, the From the beginning, the Carter administration JAMES SCHLESINGER second-largest coal producer. In 1976, a year of has been trying to steamroller the growing opposi­ major coal output, Consol produced 50.6 million tion to nuclear energy. The appointment of James tons of coal. Yet Consol's reserves in the same year Schlesinger showed where the White House stood. from nuclear energy production? were listed as 14.3 billion tons of coal. Schlesinger was previously head of the Atomic At the center of this process are two of the main There are enormous reserves of coal. But the Energy Commission, then secretary of war, and bastions of American industrial capitalism: West­ American ruling class refuses to invest in the always an outspoken advocate of nuclear power. inghouse and General Electric, the corporations pollution-control equipment needed to convert coal In his first major energy address in April 1977 involved with the AEC's development of nuclear safely into energy, and in the upgrading of the Carter made it clear that nuclear power production technology from the beginning. railroads necessary to transport coal. had a green light: "We must ... increase our From the 1890s GE and Westinghouse were key There is plentiful natural gas and a considerable capacity to produce enriched uranium fuel for light­ sectors of the financial empire of J.P. Morgan and amount of oil. But these are kept in reserve to a water nuclear power plants," he said. Company. This powerful banking group, now cen­ greater or lesser extent as the companies strive to "We must also reform the nuclear licensing proce­ tered around the Morgan Guaranty Trust, also raise gas and oil prices to the limits. dures," Carter maintained. He complained, "It controls AT&T, U.S. Steel, and a number of rail­ Finally, nuclear energy-the most dangerous should not take ten years to license a plant." roads. As well, it controls a host of electric generat­ industrial enterprise today-is promoted because of "Reform" meant making it much more difficult to ing companies. the vast profits that lurk in this industry press questions about safety and environmental Westinghouse and GE themselves sell three­ Contrived shortages, soaring fuel bills, hazards to hazards during the licensing process. fourths of the reactors produced in this country. workers in the industry and the public at large, and Washington's concern for nuclear power stems They sell nuclear reactors abroad. And they control now the ultimate threat of nuclear disaster-this is from both military and economic necessities of a considerable amount of the uranium necessary for what capitalist control of the energy industry has American capitalism. The momentum for nuclear nuclear production. brought us. power initially came from the production of atomic The other two companies that manufacture nu­ It is time that energy production was reorganized weapons. The "Atoms for Peace" program was clear reactors are the Babcock and Wilcox division from top to bottom-under the control of working launched by the newly founded Atomic Energy of the J. Ray McDermott, and Combustion Engi­ people, not the private profit drive. Commission in the early 1950s to promote nuclear neering. development. - Its very name betrayed one of the purposes: Profits Lessons for the production of nuclear power for energy could help These monopolies stand to gain immense profits distract attention from the relentless production of from the continued construction of nuclear power fight against nukes nuclear weapons for the Pentagon's deadly arsenal. stations. This flows from the huge amount of Nuclear reactors had to be built to supply pluto­ capital involved in the production of nuclear plants. nium for atom bombs. If they could also be sold to Today a 1,000-megawatt unit costs close to $1.5 Out Now! A Participant's Account of the public as a miraculous new energy source, so billion. the American Movement against the much the better. Under this guise the AEC poured According to Business Week, the "most hopeful" VIetnam War massive subsidies into such corporations as General industry and government projections for nuclear By Fred Halstead. The dramatic story of the Electric and Westinghouse for nuclear research. growth in the next decade call for 180 new plant antiwar movement, told by one of its central orders. That is some $270 billion worth of plants! leaders and organizers. Monad. 759 pp., cloth $30, Secrecy It is this enormous potential investment and paper, $8.95. From the beginning this process has been potential profit that keeps the pressure on for the shrouded in secrecy. The government, the corpora­ development of nuclear power-not the supposed And for reading on the hazards of nuclear tions making nuclear reactors, and the utilities running out of fossil fuels in the United States. power . .. conspired to conceal the dangers of nuclear produc­ In fact the continental United States is abund­ tion. antly rich in energy sources, above all in coal and Nuclear Power by Walter Patterson. Penguin Book, When Schlesinger headed the AEC, for example, natural gas. 302 pp., $3.50 in 1971-73, it conducted a survey of safety problems The energy shortage myth has been drummed up The Poverty of Power by Barry Commoner. Ban­ in nuclear reactors. "The large number of reactor to aid Washington in removing price controls on tam Books, 297 pp., $2. 75. incidents, coupled with the fact that many of them domestic oil and natural gas. The oil companies had real safety significance . . . raises a serious have deliberately cut back U.S. oil production, The Silent Bomb, ed. Peter Faulkner. Vintage, 382 question regarding the current review and inspec­ hoarding the oil for a time when they can sell it at pp., $3.95. tion practices both on .the part of the nuclear deregulated world market prices. We Almost Lost Detroit by John G. Fuller. Ballan­ industry and the AEC." The AEC kept this report Despite their flag-waving calls for U.S. "energy tine, 288 pp., $1.95. secret. It came to light through the efforts of the independence," the U.S. oil giants reap vast profits Union of Concerned Scientists in 1974. from the import of oil from OPEC (Organization of Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New Meanwhile nuclear energy became a growing Petroleum Exporting Countries) producers. These York, New York 10014. Please include $.50 for factor in the production of electricity. Why? Because U.S. corporations-along with a handful of Euro­ postage, $.75 if order for more than one book. of a shortage of other energy sources? Or because of pean oil trusts-control the distribution and sale of the immense profits U.S. capitalism stands to gain OPEC oil.

MILITANT SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT/APRIL 10, 1979 7 Thousands protest 'We all live in Pennsylvania'

By Osborne Hart march on the federal building. On picketed the federal building, calling The demonstration will take place "We all live in Pennsylvania!" April 22, protesters will rally at the for the closing of the Wolf Creek plant. Friday, April 6, at the headquarters of chanted 50,000 antinuclear demonstra­ PEC Limerick nuclear power plant in Protests are also scheduled this week Con Edison at 14th Street and Irving tors at a rally in Hanover, West Ger" Limerick, Pennsylvania. for: Denver, Toledo, Cleveland, Place. It will be cosponsored by the many March 30. • Chicago/Gary-One hundred Atlanta, Los Angeles, Albany, Am­ New York Mobilization for Survival. The protest was organized against people, including members of United herst, San Diego, Milwaukee, Albu­ The numbers to call for further infor­ plans for a nuclear waste dump, but Steelworkers of America locals 1010, querque, New Orleans, and Washing­ mation are: NYC SHAD Alliance (212) the nuclear accident at the Three Mile 1066, and 6787 participated in a picket ton, D.C. 533-0796; NYC Mobilization for Survi­ Island plant in the U.S. became the on March 31 demanding a halt to val (212) 673-1808. automatic focus for the action. construction of the Bailly nuclear In the United States, antinuclear power plant. Another action is planned By Bennett Satinoff activists and organizations mounted a -for April 7 at the Bailly site, which is NEW YORK-The news March 30 of Antinuke forums rapid response to the events in Penn­ located near the Bethlehem Steel plant. increased danger at Three Mile Island brought out a quickly built protest of DETROIT sylvania. Quickly organized demon­ • Minneapolis-150 picketed NO NUKES: AN ACTION PERSPECTIVE. strations and emergency meetings Northern States Power, calling for the 1,500 people in Washington Square Speakers: Stan Hills, Arbor Alliance and Young were held in cities across the country. closure of two nuclear power plants. Park. Socialist Alliance; Marvin Fried, Safe Energy The protesters held a rally in the Coalition of Detroit. Fri., Apr. 8, 7 p.m. 6404 Antinuclear activists mobilized to • Raleigh, North Carolina-An Woodward. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Fo­ express their outrage and to organize emergency meeting of the Kudzu Al­ park and then marched to the showing rum. For more information call (313) 875-5322. of China Syndrome in Times Square. immediate actions against nuclear liance was held April 1 to plan a picket LOS ANGELES: EAST SIDE power. Profit-gouging utility compan­ and other actions against nuclear Chants of "No more nukes! Shut them NUCLEAR POWER: WHAT IT IS AND HOW ies owning nuclear plants have become power. down!" and "No more Hiroshimas! No TO STOP IT. Speakers: Dr. Irving Lyon; Lou more Harrisburgs" attracted many Martin, South Coast Alliance for Survival; Jim targets for protest actions. Activists • St. Louis-A demonstration was Odling, Alliance for Survival, Socialist Workers are also leafleting and holding im­ held at the Callaway nuclear power onlookers to join the march. Party. Thurs., Apr. 12, 7:30p.m. 2554 Saturn Ave. promptu rallies at showings of the plant on April 1. A debate on nuclear From Times Square, 200 people Huntington Pk. Donation: $1.50 Ausp: Militant antinuclear film The China Syndrome. power April 5 will pit Union Electric marched to the TRIGA nuclear reactor Forum. For more information call (213) 582-1975. As we go to press, antinuclear acti­ (owners of the Callaway plant) at Columbia University. There NEW YORK vists have organized news conferences, against antinuclear activists at Wash­ hundreds of people leaving a campus SOCIALISM AND THE ANTI-NUCLEAR concert and others from nearby dormi­ POWER MOVEMENT. Speaker: Paul Mailhot, demonstrations, and meetings in more ington University. April 24 St. Loui­ Young Socialist Alliance National Executive than twenty-five cities in opposition to sans for a Safe Environment will pro­ tories joined a picket line. Committee. Wed., Apr. 18, 7 p.m. NYU Loeb the continued use of nuclear energy. test at Union Electric's stockholders' The president of Columbia Univer­ Student Center Room 411, 566 LaGuardia Pl., sity, Dr. William J. McGill, was forced Washington Sq. South. Ausp: YSA. For more • Connecticut-On April 7 a major meeting. information call (212) 533-2902. demonstration is planned in Groton, • Phoenix-Mobilization for Survi­ to announce that he would "go to the the launching site of the Trident nu­ val is organizing for an April 7 demon­ faculty of engineering with a very OAKLAND-BERKELEY strong request to not go forward with NO NUKESI A PANEL DISCUSSION. Fri., Apr. clear submarine (the largest nuclear stration at the state capitol demanding 6, 8 p.m. 3264 Adeline St., Berkeley. Donation $1. sub in the world). that Arizona Public Service stop con­ the reactor-to terminate this develop­ Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call • Boston-The Clamshell Alliance struction of the power plant outside ment." (415) 653-7156 or 261-1210. and others mobilized a demonstration Phoenix. TRIGA may be the first nuclear PHILADELPHIA of 3,000 on the Boston Commons and • Detroit-The Arbor Alliance will reactor that is a casualty of the Three NO TO NUCLEAR POWER: THE THREE MILE marched to the governor's house April picket Detroit Edison April 5. ISLAND DISASTER. Speaker: Arnold Weissberg, Mile Island disaster. Students vowed staff writer for the Militant; others. Fri., Apr. 6, 8 1. The Student Coalition Against • Louisville-Two hundred de­ to continue fighting TRIGA until it is p.m. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Houston Hall, 3417 Nukes plans an April 4 demonstration. manded a halt to the construction of dismantled. Spruce Street. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Fo­ • Philadelphia-A daily vigil at the Marble Hill nuclear plant March The rally and maroh coincided with rum. For more information call (215) 927-4747. the Philadelphia Electric Company 31. An emergency meeting was held to a highly successful weekend confer­ PITTSBURGH ·. (PEC) will continue until the crisis at plan further actions. ence here of the New York SHAD Alli­ THE CASE AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER: the Three Mile Island plant is over. LESSONS FROM HARRISBURG. Speakers: • San Francisco Bay Area-More ance. Brian Bergen, Mobilization for Survival; Brett Two hundred demonstrated at the PEC than 300 demonstrated March 30 and There were over 400 people at the Merkey, USWA Local 12046 and former radiation offices on March 30 demanding that 31 at Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Saturday educational and organizing control technician at the Shippingport nuclear plant; Mike Kocak, member of Militant reporting · PEC shut down its nuclear plants. The Activists are demanding shut-down of workshops of the conference. They team in Harrisburg. Fri., Apr. 6, 8 p.m. 1210 E. Keystone Antinuclear Alliance will the Rancho Seco plant. called a demonstration against Con Carson St. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. picket the PEC board of directors April • Kansas City, Missouri-The Edison's nuclear power plant at Indian For more information call (412) 488-7000. 4. On April 8, demonstrators will Kansas City People's Energy Project Point.

dangers of nu- /[_~ The vast major- clear power and /.§. ity of people are the movement to .~~ against the use of a halt all nukes. technology that Also a statement No tO nuclear threatens the very ex- Against by the YSA on power and Weapons! istence of human life. the Harrisburg If you want to join disaster. The the struggle for a April 'YS' in- nuclear-free world, a eludes an article world where health on the struggle and safety are not sac- Nuclear to get the Uni- rificed to capitalist profit, you should join the versity of California to sever its ties with the Young Socialist Alliance. For more information, Livermore Labs, where the neutron bomb is being return this coupon to: YSA National Office, Box developed. 471 Cooper Station, New York, New York 10003. ······························································~········································· 0 Send me a copy of the Young Socialist (30~ 0 Send me the 'No Nukes!' button (50~. 25~ Power? each, 25~ for bundles). for ten or more). 0 Enclosed is $1.00 for a six-issue subscription to 0 I want to join the YSA. the Young Socialist (special high school rate Name 50~)- NOW AVAILABLE-A special 'Young Socialist' Address supplement featuring a report given to the Young 0 Send me a copy of the special 'No Nukes' Socialist Alliance National Convention on the supplement (10~ each, 3~ for ten or more). City ____ State

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