Subject: Y2K Safety Holiday
Y 2 K W O R L D A T O M I C S A F E T Y H O L I D A Y
website: www.y2kwash.org hotline: 415-789-8032
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Dear All who are concerned about the safety of our planet,
How you react to this e-mail can really make a difference
to the safety of this planet on Dec 31 and beyond.
Please distribute this as far and wide as you can
(and pardon any duplicates of this message you may receive).
WE NEED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU TO SHOW PRESIDENT CLINTON THAT THE
WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING AND WANTS IMMEDIATE ACTION!
PLEASE MAKE THREE CALLS THIS WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY,
DECEMBER 8TH & 9TH. IF YOU CAN'T CALL ON THESE DAYS,
CALL ANYTIME YOU ARE ABLE TO. HERE ARE THE NUMBERS:
President Bill Clinton: (tel) 202-456-1111, (fax) 202-456-2461
John Koskinen, President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion:
(tel) 202-456-7171
(fax) 202-456-7172
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) & Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT),
Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem:
(tel) 202-224-5224
If you can do more, phone your own Representatives and Senators (they are
home in their districts now - numbers are in your phone book), tell them
how you feel and ask them to call the White House too. And by all means, be
creative!
SAMPLE LETTER
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Dear President Clinton,
We respectfully request that you issue an executive order to:
1) Temporarily shut down all U.S. nuclear reactors in a phased procedure to
be completed by no later than noon, December 30th; and allow a phased
restart after January 1st only when normal functions of electrical
transmission, communications and water systems have been restored and
validated, and nuclear plants have been independently verified Y2K
compliant;
2) Ensure that there are reliable backup generators and sixty days' fuel
supplies for reactor cooling systems and other nuclear facilities that rely
on cooling, particularly for ALL spent fuel pools;
3) Close all other nuclear facilities and suspend nuclear shipments for the
New Year's weekend;
4) Protect communities by practicing emergency drills;
5) Provide government subsidies for the cost of backup generators and fuel
and for nuclear workers' lost pay and utilities' lost revenues during the
temporary shutdown;
6) De-alert nuclear weapons systems and implement trust-building measures
among nuclear nations;
7) Renew these measures for February 29, 2000 and December 31, 2000-January
1, 2001; and
8) Encourage other world leaders to undertake these initiatives as a joint
international effort so that the financial status of a nation is not an
impediment to a WORLD ATOMIC SAFETY HOLIDAY.
Sincerely,
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Nuclear Y2K
LET'S NOT RISK NUCLEAR MELTDOWNS!
The October accident at the nuclear processing plant in
Tokaimura, Japan, is a reminder of the destructive power of radioactive
technology. The result of simple human error and lax regulationboth part of
the Y2K mixit could foreshadow nuclear accidents which may occur less than
25 days from nowunless we act now to prevent catastrophe.
Computer malfunctions may confuse operators with faulty data.
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A Y2K test in February, 1999 at the Peach Bottom reactor in
Pennsylvania caused a day-long crash of the plant's primary and backup
monitoring computers. With blank screens, operators could not view
conditions inside the reactor. Could this be an ominous preview of
conditions at nuclear reactors all over the world because of the Year 2000
computer bug (Y2K)? Lets remember that it was bad data, human error and lax
regulations which triggered disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and
Tokaimura.
The cooling systems of nuclear power plants need constant power
for FIVE YEARS, even after the plants have been shut down!
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--- Without constant cooling, a reactor core can melt within two
hours. U.S. government reports admit that Y2K-related electricity grid
failures are a possibility, especially in rural areas. While most reactors
have two diesel generators to provide backup power in case the electric grid
fails, their reliability record is poor: 48% have reported problems since
January 1999and they stock only 7 days' fuel. A reactor core can melt down
within two hours of loss of coolant.
Many U.S. spent (used) fuel pools have no backup generators.
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Spent fuel pools contain 3-5 times more radioactive fuel than
reactors. The fuel gradually cools, but refueling scheduled by 22 reactors
this fall will add intensely hot fuel rods to their storage pools. In the
absence of power for pumping water, these pools could boil in 24 hours and
the fuel rods could begin to melt.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is not protecting the public.
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It's protecting short-term nuclear industry profits instead.
Congress' General Accounting Office (GAO) says: "NRC's regulations...do not
define, for either a licensee or the public, the conditions necessary for a
plant's safety" in Y2K. The NRC allowed the industry to self-report
readiness, with no independent verificationand plans to suspend nuclear
safety requirements for the New Year in order to keep reactors running!
Nuclear power is not needed at New Year's.
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Electricity use is down nearly 50% in winter, so the energy provided
by nuclear power will not be needed. Nuclear plants should shut down to
protect the public, like other hazardous industries. Five major pipeline
companies including Arco, Explorer and Colonial have said they'll be
turning off their pipelines prior to and during the rollover. And four
chemical companies Rhone-Poulenc, DuPont, Monsanto and Ashland Chemical
have said they will idle some North American plants prior to 1/1/2000.
The bug's in the bomb, too.
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The British American Security Information Council reports the
possibility that the nuclear weapons states "will experience faulty or
blocked communications, erroneous early-warning readings, [and] blacked-out
computer screens" from Y2K, resulting in explosions or accidental launch of
nuclear missiles. (www.basicint.org)
The Y2K World Atomic Safety Holiday Campaign calls for:
7 Stand by for rollover: shut down nuclear reactors and nuclear
processing facilities
7 Beef up the backup: have a 60-day supply of fuel available to all
reactor sites
7 De-alert and de-couple nuclear weapons: take nuclear weapons off
"launch on warning" status; de-couple weapons from launchers.
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At only 25 days from the Y2K rollover, the largest, oldest, and
potentially least-Y2K-compliant computer systems in the world are still
those that control the 2,000 US warheads and the 3,600 Russian warheads
that are kept on 24-hour-a-day hair-trigger alert.
A resolution passed by the European Parliament on Thursday, November
18 has called for nuclear weapons power to take weapons off
"launch on warning" status (de-alert them). Instead, they need to be
on a status where it would take several days to launch.
The European Parliament also called for the temporary shutdown
of all commercial nuclear reactors and environmentally-sensitive
plants not able to verifiably demonstrate their complete
Y2K compliance and for 60 days fuel supply for backup generators.
Also, Congressman Ed Markey has introduced a bill to de-alert
nuclear weapons in the U.S. House of Representatives, which
currently has more than 70 co-signers.
The Y2K World Atomic Safety Holiday invites you to join in
an international call-in/write-in week to let our leaders know
that we want to have a safe New Yearone free from nuclear
accidents.
-- Daren Henderson (TryChange@aol.com), December 15, 1999