Asleep at the Geiger CounterAsleep at the Geiger CounterAsleep at the Geiger Counter vigorously exposes the destructive sweep of nuclear scams and frauds. It documents why nuclear programs mean cancer everywhere, birth defects forever, the uncontrolled proliferation of nuclear weapons, increased chance of nuclear war, the undermining of our national defense, the loss of civil liberties, and unending multi-billion dollar subsidies which have been bleeding us white, while actually delaying genuine energy independence.
Responsible energy policies can give us a golden age of environmental and economic benefits, a more peaceful world, and conditions which will help rich and poor alike. We are getting the opposite of all that, sanctimoniously shrouded with a cloak of big lies. Some of those lies are so brazen, they violate the most basic laws of physics and engineering. This is explained in simple language.
The book is written from the point of view of an an engineer who has been on the front line of varied research design and development for 42 years, and also on the front line of ardent environmental activism.
Asleep at the Geiger Counter unveils frequently censored material, and much that has been forgotten by the present generation. Personal encounters and anecdotes add a touch of humor to this grim topic.
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Endorsements |
"Asleep at the Geiger Counter is an excellently researched book by an engineer, deeply concerned about the direction in which some science is taking the world. It is a personable account, easily accessible and, from my perspective, I found the reading fascinating. I therefore recommend this book to all who are interested in the future of the planet and to all who need to understand why the human race has made such a mess of things, particularly in the nuclear area." Dr Helen Caldicott, Founding President, Physicians for Social Responsibilty
"Asleep at the Geiger Counter is a lively account, revealing the facts of nuclear life. Read it and act to stop a dirty industry from doing its worst." Norman Cohen, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace and Freedom, and Coordinator of the Unplug Salem Campaign
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Table of Contents |
Preface (The roar of silence about DU poisoning in the U.S., although it made the front pages all over Europe. Urges readers to learn more about what is not covered by our media.)
1. Anecdotal Evidence (Some anecdote! A look at what is brushed off as merely anecdotal evidence.)
2. Hope and Pride (A look at the dream that nuclear technology could be of great benefit to humankind, and how I was proud to participate in a nuclear project until I learned better.)
3. Oh, What Happened to Us! (Suppressed and persecuted truth-tellers. Also includes an account of how I was pressured to approve a design which could kill people and cause extensive property damage, with a long list of how this depravity happens in industry, particularly
in the nuclear industry.)
4. Is Murphy’s Law Legal? (You be the judge. Starts out with how I was nearly killed by a mishap, develops mishaps throughout the ages, leading up to nuclear Murphyisms.)
5. Apple Pie (Like mother never baked. Rather than nuclear power being safer than mom’s apple pie, it is a concoction of scientists who are bad apples. Parades a list of bad-apple pies from the chemical industry, the tobacco industry, and the nuclear industry.)
6. Sunshine Effects (Not heartwarming. Global warming is strongly indicated by hard-to-deny evidence.)
7. Nuclear Power … the Only Answer (Answered. Extensive description of cleaner, safer, less costly alternatives which have been crushed.)
8. The Wind Stops Blowing (A new law of physics. Many examples of violations of elementary physics by nuclear liars. One is that the wind stops blowing when you have a nuclear accident. Explained simply.)
9. The Great Uranium Shell Game (Brazen fraud. There isn’t enough fissionable uranium for a greatly expanded nuclear program without going to the plutonium reactor, which poses hideous problems. Exposes shenanigans.)
10. Really How Much Energy from Nukes? (Very low net yield. Explains how easy it is to deduce this shocking result using elementary analysis. This chapter crunches key official summary numbers to reveal the implications of the great uranium shell game.)
11. Nobody, but Nobody Died at Three Mile Island! (Holocaust denied.)
12. Have We Got a Solution for You! (Mad scientists on the march. Covers the use of nuclear waste as a fertilizer, depleted uranium, food irradiation, etc.)
13. Cleaner Than Coal (Debunks the fraudulent claim that nuclear is cleaner than coal. It isn’t even cleaner than the dirtiest coal-burning operation when non-discussed factors are considered.)
14. Why Not Make Nuclear Plants Safe? (Basics of why it can’t be, not ever.)
15. Your Rights (Rights denied.)
16. Sabotaging Our Security Blankets (Treason.)
17. Unfair Favoritism (Unlimited rip-off. Explains how favoritism for non-renewable energy got much more than 300 times the government support that renewable sources got.)
18. The Point of Indian Point (Look at this poster child of the industry.)
19. We Carefully Plan the Transportation of Nuclear Poisons (The three stooges still live. Shocking evidence of absolute non-care.)
20. What About Civil Liberties? (Forget them. Nuclear technologies destroy civil liberties.)
21. Spaced Out (Nukes over our heads. Astronomical risks and costs.)
22. It’s a Free Press (Theoretically. Examples of distortion and censorship.)
23. ALARA (As low as reasonably achievable. Who decides “reasonably”?)
24. Rules of Research (Ignored basics. An abstract of Dr. John Gofman’s guidelines.)
25. By Executive Order (There Reagan went again. A little known edict by Reagan which proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that every nuke is a bomb-making machine, along with other info.)
26. They Want to Do It Again! (Repeating mistakes. The insanity of pushing forward with nukes again, and the faults of the latest generation of design.)
27. Denial Is Not a River in Egypt (The psychology of denial by nuclear folks, and the compulsive folly of it all.)
28. Still Asleep After All This Time
Appendix
A. Independent Audit (Method used to debunk official claims of how much energy is available from each ton of uranium)
B. Nuremberg Principles
C. Organizations Providing Information About Nuclear Technology
D. Resolution to Abolish Price Anderson Act
Index
About the Author
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Excerpt |
The recipients of nuclear subsidies would have you believe that nuclear power is still one of the greatest things going since sex. I will try to explain why sex is a lot better.
The king said to his flunky, "If you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it." His flunky replied, "I don't believe it." The king said, "You will." The Wizard of Id
"Reality is controlled by people who are the most insane." -Scott Adams, Dilbert, "Dogbert's First Law of Business"
When it comes to low dose radioactivity, 'tis true, 'tis true.
Radioactive substances actively disintegrate, throwing off zillions of tiny particles which are sub-microscopic bullets. A high dose of these bullets kills living cells. A low dose doesn't kill cells, it damages them. The damage is observable.
A Geiger Counter measures radioactivity. Reality, according to nuclear promoters, is that low doses are safe. They might even be good for your health. An explanation of how that bizarre claim came about is discussed later on. If you can believe that being riddled with tiny bullets is good for you, I'd like to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.
Braving the catcalls of her colleagues, Dr. Alice Stewart proved a long time ago that there is no such thing as a safe dose.
We are constantly bombarded with natural low dose radioactivity. Some of it comes from the earth, and some is from outer space. This induced cancers and birth defects throughout the ages. Doses added to that by the nuclear industry have contributed heavily to the sharp increase in cancer over the past fifty years.
"Nonsense," say the nuclear folks. The sharp cancer increase is only anecdotal evidence.
That's what they told the Mormon population, whose people were dying like flies from the low dose fallout of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. Cancer caused forty-eight of sixty-three deaths in the Escalante Valley. Fallout was not limited to the southern part of Utah. Affidavits filed in court documented widespread abnormal rates of cancer.
When congressional hearings were held, it came out that President Dwight Eisenhower issued a secret document ordering the Atomic Energy Commission to confuse the public about fission and fusion. In other words deliberate deceit was Eisenhower's order of the day. If you can't trust the government, who else can you trust? You can't trust the government.
Towns like St. George reaped a grim harvest from the fallout of nuclear poison. Thousands of sheep sickened and died abruptly.
In community after community, people died of diseases rarely seen before: leukemia, lymphoma, acute thyroid damage and many forms of cancer. These were mostly Mormons, who devoutly obeyed their Church's instructions not to smoke tobacco or drink alcohol. They lived far from industrial areas which might have sent pollution their way.
For thirty years the government denied that nuclear poison had produced this plague of misery. As early as 1959, a study disclosed excessive levels of strontium 90 in children. The study was suppressed. In 1965, another study was suppressed. This one was by U.S. Public Health Researcher Dr. Edward Weiss. He correlated radioactive fallout with the high rate of leukemia deaths in southwestern Utah. At a joint Atomic Energy Commission-White House meeting, that year, the report was knocked down by the AEC. At that time, the AEC was gearing up the nuclear power program based on the premise that the levels of radioactivity permitted were harmless. The Weiss report was shelved. This did not shelve the grotesque death rate.
In 1979, the University of Utah epidemiology director Dr. Joseph L Lyon, independently confirmed the validity of the Weiss Report. He published his findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In 1979, about a thousand plaintiffs accused the government of failing to inform area residents that fallout could cause cancer. The government denied this accusation. The plaintiffs produced numerous written proclamations which had been distributed by the federal government assuring harmlessness.
One widely posted statement, dated January, 1951, signed by the AEC project manager Ralph P. Johnson said, "Health and safety authorities have determined that no danger from or as a result of AEC activities may be expected. . All necessary precautions, including radiological surveys and patrolling of the surrounding territory, will be undertaken to insure that safety conditions are maintained."
The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations issued a report in 1980. The report concluded, "The government's program for monitoring the health effects of atomic tests was inadequate and, more disturbingly, all evidence suggesting that radiation was having harmful effects, be it on sheep or the people was not only disregarded but actually suppressed."
This horror was not only being heaped on Mormons but on Indians living in the area and on American soldiers who participated in atomic testing.
Details of the above are fully described in the book, Killing Our Own by Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon (Dell Publishing Co., Inc.).
At a Washington conference sponsored by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Harvey Wasserman related that the Mormons won a law suit against the U.S. government and were awarded damages. However, he said the government appealed the decision. For its appeal, the government argued, yes for thirty years we deliberately lied about the danger of fallout. We had to lie, the government claimed. We did it for national security. Harvey urged conference attendees never to forget the Mormon "anecdote" I didn't.
I wrote to Mr. Stewart Udall, to confirm this story. He was a U.S Congressman, a Secretary of the Interior, and he was one of the lawyers to champion the cause of Americans who were knowingly exposed to toxic radiation. He replied. "They did not use this argument in a direct way, but it was implicit in the defense they offered."
Direct or implicit, their action was the same. They committed premeditated deceit and murder. Harvey Wasserman's statement was substantially confirmed.
The government won their appeal by invoking the magic words, national defense. Sanctimonious deceit rolls on, alive and well.
Later on, bomb tests were conducted underground. There was still fallout, but not nearly as much. Our national security did not suffer one iota from the change in testing.
Some people have always been sacrificed for national security. Military commanders must order their grunts into harm's way. Risking life for a crucial battle is one thing. Risking lives for the sake of subsidies or for official stupidity is something else.
Blue Dolphin Publishing, 2002/2011