Some of you may be interested in participating in the campaign described in the following email I received today:

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Dear friends,

This is a one-time-only mailing to let you know about the World Atomic Safety Holiday campaign and the demonstration planned for Friday, August 6 (Hiroshima Day) in San Francisco. You may want to call a similar action in your area...

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RALLY TO PREVENT Y2K NUCLEAR CATASTROPHE

The Y2K bug could unwittingly trigger a Chernobyl-type nuclear holocaust. So what are the experts doing? Hoping for the best, says Helen Caldicott, founding president of Physicians For Social Responsibility.

The picture is potentially grim. Can something still be done? YES!

DEMONSTRATE FOR GLOBAL SAFETY ON HIROSHIMA DAY

FRIDAY, AUGUST 6TH - 5:00 PM

UNITED NATIONS PLAZA, SAN FRANCISCO

North Side of Market Street, between 7th & 8th Streets (Civic Center BART Station - United Nations Plaza Exit)

* WAKE UP THE WORLD TO THE POTENTIAL FOR Y2K NUCLEAR CATASTROPHES

* WORLD-WIDE DEMONSTRATIONS OF CONCERN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY

* SUPPORT "WORLD ATOMIC SAFETY HOLIDAY" (WASH)

SPONSORED BY THE BAY AREA CHAPTER OF THE Y2K NUCLEAR WASH CAMPAIGN FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL: (510) 814-8215 (510) 540-0545 (510) 482-1588

For information about Y2K as it affects nuclear power plants, visit these web sites:

www.nirs.org (Nuclear Information & Resources Service) www.enviroweb.org/nukenet/ (Y2K & Nuclear Safety Forum) www.enviroweb.org/tmia (Three Mile Island Alert) www.co-intelligence.org (The Co-Intelligence Institute)

Please Copy & Distribute This Flyer =============================================================================== Take Action to Prevent Nuclear Meltdown

There are 433 nuclear power reactors in the world, 103 are in the United States. The Y2K computer bug has the potential to create a disaster at any of these sites. While critical time slips away, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, overseer of US reactors) appears ready to let reactors get by without proof of Y2K compliance. If action is not taken, systems with proven Y2K-sensitive chips will remain operational through the New Year. It is critical that the government is held responsible for the public safety and that our elected officials act promptly to prevent all possible reactor disasters.

Nuclear reactors have the potential to malfunction in a variety of ways.

The average reactor in the U.S. has thousands of embedded chips in numerous computer systems. An NRC audit of the Seabrook reactor in New Hampshire found twelve safety related systems and 800 other significant systems which were affected by theY2K problem. Meltdown could occur if computers report incorrect data and reactor personnel act upon this misinformation. Both the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island reactor disasters occurred because of operators acting upon incorrect data.

External power failures could also cause reactor meltdown. Nuclear reactors require power from the grid to pass coolant through the core. Without power the core could begin to melt in less than two hours. In cases of power failure, reactors rely on diesel generators to run the cooling systems. Unfortunately, these generators are reported by the NRC to be only 95% reliable. (Non-governmental sources, however, claim only 85% reliability.)

The federal government is publicly saying that the risk of reactor problems is not great enough to justify shutting down the reactors for the New Year's transition. Experts agree that no nuclear power will be needed in the U.S. on January 1, 2000 - there will be plenty of electrical generation available. The public needs to let its officials know that Americans are willing to live without nuclear power through the New Year in order to avoid a nuclear disaster. To safeguard against Y2K nuclear plant accidents, reactors in the U.S. and throughout the world should be taken off line and the diesel back-up generators must be checked to assure they are running properly and that a long-term supply of fuel is available.

Contact your government representatives TODAY.

Tell them to ensure that nuclear reactors are shut down for Y2K and are supplied with reliable back-up power.

WORLD ATOMIC SAFETY HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN ~ Campaign Points:

* Take nuclear reactors & nuclear processing facilities off-line from December 1, 1999 until after the New Year. Each facility must show it meets Y2K compliance criteria with testing and verification before restart.

* Install additional reliable back-up power systems, and certify that diesel generators are in good working order with a minimum of 3 months fuel supply.

* De-alert all nuclear weapons no later than December l, 1999. (Take them off "hair-trigger" alert, [20 minutes to fire].)

-- Faith Weaver (suzsolutions@yahoo.com), July 31, 1999

Answers

To the top! Thanks Faith.

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), July 31, 1999.

Faith: Thanks for the post. I remember about a year ago reading some comments that Jim Lord made regarding when environmentalists and Seniors (AARP) finally begin "getting it" and raising their concerns. Both are powerful lobby groups (AARP is the largest in the country). Perhaps this is a sign of the coming times that he said would arrive eventually. Perhaps it is eventually now. We shall see.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.con), July 31, 1999.

fogive my stupidity...but I was under the impression that a nuke plant would need to be shut down 5 MOUNTHS ahead 01/01/2000 to completely cool the rods....so even IF a plant had a fuctioning generator, could they get and store 5 Mounths of diesel to cool down after a problem starts?????

-- Les (leslie.leblanc@gte.net), July 31, 1999.

Rob, AARP thinks that everything is fine now and no longer discusses the issue. (I do get their publications but I'm not THAT old.)

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), July 31, 1999.

Mara: Yeah, you are right. At most there have been some brief flurries of AARP interest and then it subsides quickly. My remark really was just to indicate that I think Jim Lord was onto something important, in that there is no Y2K lobby group, nor is there a political constituency for Y2K. It's off the radar scope. If the environmentalists are finally starting to express Y2K concerns, then maybe this is the start of some pressure from at least that group. Who knows.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), July 31, 1999.

I don't see it, Rob. Remember when I tried talking about Y2K environmental impact around here last year. At that time, I was also trying to discuss Y2K with my green contacts. I must say I was disappointed in the responses from both camps. As far as I can tell, things have changed very little in either regard.

For all their prattle about "holistic" thinking, the greens, as a group, don't seem to get it. Exceptions like Doug Carmichael, Tom Atlee and a few others do not prove much. The so-called leaders of the Earth movements are not seriously on record as being much aware of the potential Y2K impacts on the environment.

While I am pleased to see several Y2K alert members of this forum referring to Earth issues, most of the TB2K respondents seem more concerned with saving their hairless butts. And who can blame them; that's the natural reaction of any species in times of crisis.

As I said last year, I guess everyone has an investment in their own flavor of Armageddon.

Hallyx

"Carried away, perhaps by His matchless creation, The Garden of Eden, He forgot to mention that all He was giving us was an interglacial."--- Robert Ardrey

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), July 31, 1999.

What amazing, unmitigated crap. I think I'll just hold my breath instead. Hmmm, perhaps while waving my arms. . . but not chewing gum.

-- Procopious (dwknicely@incom.net), July 31, 1999.

Thanks faith weaver for raising this very important topic. I feel that it is highly irresponsible for any of the govts around the world to be operating Nuclear power plants during the y2k transition. It is criminal. With not one organization that can claim 100% complience we are heading for an environmental disaster unequaled in mankind's history. Read cory's wrp 124 and apply these facts to the nuclear power industry or to the 10 billion lines of code in our nations early warning system has to fix and tell me if you feel real lucky. You think banking mainframe software is tough to fix. Try software that has to monitor the world 24/7 365 days a year in real time in 3d watching that somebody doesnt launch something.

Only our common vested interest in the ones we love will bring the Russians,U.S,France,Britian,Israel,India,Pakistan,Iran,Sryia,Iraq,Libi a,North korea,Tawain,colombia,Japan,South korea,Germany,Ukraine,belarus and the Chinese to their senses. They need to stop playing nuclear chicken and talk about how not to have a y2k nuclear war. All the countries above have confirmed nuclear weapons capabilities. The world loses big if we allow stupidy and arrogance to decide our fate. Y2k is a big problem for nuclear weapons and for early warning, and for nuclear power. Support your children's right to grow up and have a future. Support this protest it is worthy. We need to continue to raise this issue(Get in there face 60's style) until tell get the message to shut it down now. Not just one day, but continuely every day until the issue is responded to by the world leaders. Every body must be made aware of this health alert. Print out the flyer above and post them every where schools,businesses, newspapers with your congressman's ,senator's and local media's phone number on them. Let's ring there phone's off the hooks until they commit to dealing with it. We will not go away while their incompetance is endangering our families hope for a future. Take the time it's worth it. Nuclear weapons are portable city buster crematorums. they can vaporize cold steel and everything in-between 25 miles away from ground zero, horrible fatal radiation posioning within 50 miles, and almost certain cancer within 100 miles of a blast. Look at your kids and tell your self, can I tell them I knew about this and choose to ignore it, If your left after the unimaginable happens. Get busy there is much work to be done. Preps will be useless if this issue is not dealt with pronto.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), July 31, 1999.

y2k aware mike,

Thank you for expressing your concern over this issue. I'm wondering whether anyone from this board will be able to attend the rally and give us a report on turn out, responses, etc. I don't look for much mainstream media coverage of the event.

It's a bit late for organizing local demonstrations to coincide with this San Francisco rally, but it's not too late to begin making those phone calls and sending those emails/letters and distributing printouts of the flier.

From the beginning, the nuclear threat posed by y2k has seemed to me to be the most ghastly by far. I have observed with interest that it's nearly a taboo subject, avoided as a topic of serious discussion among us GIs for all this long time. Perhaps it seems too far outside our immediate influence for us to feel empowered to make a difference. Yet, if any aspect of this travesty calls for concerted action, surely it is this.

-- Faith Weaver (suzsolutions@yahoo.com), July 31, 1999.

Faith dont lose hope. In 1992 I was part of an incredible 2 week protest to stop nuclear weapons testing in nevada which resulted in all the nations of the world temporarily stoping nuclear weapons testing and the signing but not yet ratified comprehesive test ban treaty. The world leaders know that nuclear weapons are a zero sum game, In which when used everyone loses. Until these weapons are banned from the planet we should never stop protesting them diligently. The protest was called the 100th monkey protest in which the worlds largest solar power rock concert was held and members from ever native american Indian nation had represention there. A tree of the Peace forest was planted at the gates of the nevada test site in memory of John Lennon. A world wide movement continues to this day to stop this insanity that has no place in the human race. Great things happen if you take action in faith and trust in God. Maybe y2k is disarment by proxy. At least I hope so. What a Blessing prehaps. Y2k maybe a big blessing in disguise. You just never know

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), August 01, 1999.