From: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com (abolition-usa-digest) To: abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #63 Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest Sender: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk abolition-usa-digest Tuesday, January 26 1999 Volume 01 : Number 063 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 14:07:46 EST From: PeaceFirst@aol.com Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Re: US Conditions for the CTB Dear Jackie, Please send us your latest analysis of CTBT via email regular text. Thanks, John Martin, Director - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 23:02:40 -0600 (CST) From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Chance For Public To Express Concern - ------Begin forward message------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 12:20:12 -0500 From: Deb Katz To: Balanced Subject: how dirty can cleanup get! MA: Box 83 Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 P/F: 413-339-5781/8768 CT: 54 Old Turnpike Road, Haddam, CT 06438 P/F: 860-345-8431 VT: C/O Box 566 Putney, VT 05346 P/F: 802-387-4050 NH: 9 Evens Road, Madbury, NH 03820 P/F 603-742-4261 NY: 924 Burnet Ave, Syracuse, NY 13203 315-472-5478/ 7923 CITIZENS AWARENESS NETWORK HOW DIRTY CAN CLEAN-UP GET! =93=85. It brings to mind the Office of Circumlocution in Charles Dickens= =92 Bleak House=85.=94 Judge Michael Ponzer, Federal District Court, May, 1994 Regarding NRC=92s actions to violate EPA requirement and a public hearing in the Rowe decommissioning =93=85.arbitrary, capricious, and utterly irrational=85..=94 US Court of Appeals July 1995 CAN v NRC Describing NRC=92s activities in the Yankee Rowe decommissioning In what may be the only opportunity for the public to express concerns to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about the radioactive pollution Yankee Atomic is leaving behind for us, the NRC will hold a Pre-hearing, January 26th at the Greenfield Court House. The pre-trial will establish the boundaries for subject matter for a subsequent hearing regarding the site release plan for the site of the Yankee Rowe nuclear reactor. Yankee's lawyers, counsel for the NRC, and Citizens Awareness Network with other public interest groups including New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, will argue before a panel of three Atomic Safety and Licensing Board judges about how dirty the clean-up of Rowe can be. There will be a public comment period, beginning at 6:30 PM, for citizens to raise concerns over the future of the reactor site In November 1998, the NRC Commissioners ordered the elimination of any discussion of a proposed Dry Cask storage facility on the site for Yankee Rowe's irradiated fuel with the justification that high-level waste is the "responsibility" of the Department of Energy (DOE). This action attempts to effectively preclude public input into perhaps the most salient aspect of Yankee's License Termination Plan (LTP). This may be the only opportunity for members of the public to express concerns about the dangerous waste Yankee Atomic is leaving behind for us, its hapless neighbors. The contentions CAN will present at the hearing include concerns about plans for the creation of an Independent Fuel Storage Facility. These concerns are supported by an affidavit by David Lochbaum, Nuclear Engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists. In all likelihood the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will attempt to silence any references to this experimental process. CAN's eight contentions argue that YAEC's License Termination Plan is not adequate to protect the health and safety of the public and workers, and that the NRC has not promulgated clear guidelines and standards for the remediation of the site. CAN is requesting that YAEC stop: ? Undermining the EPA and MA State exposure standards by manipulating its calculations for "safe" exposure to protect the public. The "public", in Yankee's philosophy, consists solely of males weighing at least 200 pounds who "inhabit" the site only 8 hours a day. ? Arbitrarily limiting its scoping (characterization) of the site, the number of radionuclides tested for, the investigation of areas of unexpected and unexplained contamination in unaffected areas, and maintaining a consistent bias in its sampling analysis that allows Yankee to leave more contaminated soil behind. ? Proceeding in the absence of any independent environmental assessments or analysis to remediate the site or create an experiment within an experiment- removal of Yankee's fuel pool and the establishing of a dry cask storage dump. ? Ignoring the on-going epidemic of disease in the Deerfield River Valley in formulating acceptable levels of exposure in addition to EPA standards. What is seen in on-going events at the site, and in Yankee's LTP, is a philosophical decision to cut costs, limit clean-up, and thereby relieve itself of its responsibility to monitor and remove dangerous contamination from the site and from the river where contamination has migrated. This philosophical perspective does not protect the health and safety of our community, but will lead to the firing of Yankee's skilled workforce and the removal of Yankee's fuel pool to save money. What YAEC will leave behind, if NRC abdicates its responsibility to reactor communities, is not a "Greenfield" but an atomic power legacy of radioactive contamination and storage site for irradiated fuel rod waste. =93It is unacceptable that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission values Yanke= e Atomic=92s profit margin over the health and safety of our community.=94 said Deb Katz, President of the Citizens Awareness Network. =93 It is a travesty if NRC sanctions the violation of EPA radiation standards so that Yankee can cut costs, cut jobs, and create another dangerous experiment at Rowe. Rowe=92s site remediation must be relevant and accountability to its neighbors not its shareholders.=94 =93If NRC gives Yankee Atomic the green light to leave the site contaminated, all reactors in New England will follow Yankee=92s lead and leave their deadly garbage behind.=94 said Sal Mangiali, Board member of CAN and resident of Haddam, CT, host to the decommissioning CT Yankee reactor. =93We believe that it would be safer, more cost-effective, and protective of workers and the community if Yankee would stop its strip and ship policy, and hold its waste on site until an environmentally sound and just solution is created. To bury the nuclear fiasco in someone else=92s backyard only masks the problem of how dirty nuclear power really is.=94 =93Yankee=92s precedent-setting decommissioning will effect how contamina= ted Vermont Yankee will eventually leave its site. What we see with decommissioning at Yankee Rowe and CT Yankee is that safe, clean nuclear power is public relations rather than fact. Vermont Yankee should close rather than creating more waste for which there is no solution.=94 said Derrik Jordan, Vermont CAN member. - ------End forward message--------------------------- - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 10:50:57 -0500 From: Kathy Crandall Subject: (abolition-usa) THE STAR WARS REVIVAL, THE DISARMAMENT STALL THE STAR WARS REVIVAL, THE DISARMAMENT STALL NEWS SUMMARY & ACTION ALERT ENCLOSED PLEASE FIND: 1) Summary of the Current Situation 2) WHAT YOU CAN DO - with sample letter to the editor 3) State of the Union - Republican Response 4) Cohen Announcement 5) Russia Response to Administration Plans 6) Jesse Helms on STAR WARS & the ABM Treaty ***************************************************************** 1) Summary of the Current Situation Last week=91s developments on STAR WARS missile defense system will have = a major impact on our work as nuclear disarmament advocates in the coming months. Starting at the beginning of the week - with Tuesday's State of the Union Address, Republicans placed missile defense in a high- priority and high-profile position in their State of the Union Response. STAR WARS is a key "individual liberty" issue for Republicans. (See excerpts below # 3) The following day, On January 20, Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced major steps toward deployment of a National Missile Defense, but avoided an outright commitment to a system that is years from testing. Interpretation and response has varied and has required a great deal of additional explanation from the White House about U.S. commitment to the ABM (Anti- Ballistic Missile) Treaty, and actual deployment plans. (See articles, links to speeches and fact sheets below #4) It is clear, however, that the Russian response was especially negative and will make progress on START II even more difficult. Friday's Washington Post featured two stories on the same page: "Pentagon Debates Arms Treaty Changes - Plan Aims to Allow Missile Defense System " and "Russia Says START II is Imperiled - U.S. Missile System Plan could End Hopes for Ratification" (See more on Russian response below #5) Meanwhile, like a shark smelling blood, Jesse Helms (R-NC Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) surfaced on Friday, announcing that his demand that ABM Treaty protocols be considered by June 1 of this year, so that "If I succeed, we will defeat the ABM Treaty, toss it into the dustbin of history and thereby clear the way to build a national missile defense." Moreover, according to Helms, only after the ABM protocols and the Kyoto Protocols (on Global Climate Change) are considered, will the Senate Foreign Relations Committee consider the Test Ban Treaty. (See Helms' op-ed below #6) 2)WHAT YOU CAN DO a. ORDER Disarmament Clearinghouse STAR WARS REVIVAL RESOURCE & ACTION KITS - AVAILABLE FEB 10, More information coming soon b. Write a Letter to the Editor There is going to be plenty of news in the coming weeks on STAR WARS Developments. Please take the opportunity to respond with letters to the editor. For additional assistance, please contact the Disarmament Clearinghouse. *Tips on Successful Letters to The Editor* (From 20/20 Vision) *Letters to the editor can be submitted by regular (postal) mail, fax, and often e-mail. *Be sure to include your return address and day and evening hone numbers so that the newspaper can verify your letter. The newspaper will not print your contact information. *Letters that are educational, personal, and refer to coverage in the paper are much more likely to be printed. It is helpful if you can relate your letter to a relevant event. *Your newspaper's editorial page will often include the newspaper's policy on publishing letters such as length requirements as well as the mailing address, fax number and e-mail address where available for letters to the editor. If you cannot find this information, contact the Disarmament Clearinghouse for assistance. For more information or assistance please contact the Disarmament Clearinghouse and please send us all printed Letters to the Editor: - -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0172 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org (A project of: Friends Committee on National Legislation, Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Women's Action for New Directions) **SAMPLE LETTER TO THE EDITOR ** (Please modify this to respond to the news coverage in your papers. Also see additional resources listed below for additional talking points) Policy makers in Washington are headed the wrong way on nuclear weapons policy. Republicans harkening back to the Cold War days have been leading the revival of the ineffective, costly STAR WARS missile defense system. Now it seems that the Clinton Administration is falling in step right behind them. The Administration plans to spend another $6.6 billion to get closer to deploying something that probably won't work any time soon. In fact, the deployment date has been moved back from 2003 to 2005. After over 40 years of research, and over $100 billion since STAR WARS was first conceived in the 1950's, there is still no defense system that actually works reliably. Even a working STAR WARS defense system wouldn't stop terrorists from smuggling nuclear materials or other weapons of mass destruction via plane, truck, train or ship. Moreover, I am much more concerned about the vast uncontrolled Russian nuclear arsenal. Promoting these STAR WARS plans make it less likely that we can reduce Russian arsenals and maintain a stable working relationship with Russia. Instead, the President and Congress should pursue measures to really make us safer. The U.S. Senate should ratify the nuclear test ban treaty finally banning nuclear test explosions and hindering the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries. The President should pursue measure to reduce U.S. and Russian arsenals, and to lower the alert status of the thousands of nuclear weapons currently poised on hair-trigger alert. MORE RESOURCES ON THE STAR WARS REVIVAL/ DISARMAMENT STALL "Cohen's National Missile Defense Statement: What Did It Mean?" January 21, 1999 by John Isaacs, Council for a Livable World http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/coalition/clw12199.htm For more background on Ballistic Missile Defense see: Physicians for Social Responsibility Fact Sheet http://www.psr.org/bmd.htm "Star Wars Missile Defense =97 A Solution in Search of A Problem" Women's Action For New Directions Fact Sheet http://www.wand.ORG/getfacts/star_wars/star_wars.html and don't miss The Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers Ballistic Missile Defense page: http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/coalition/libbmd.htm More below . . . ***************************************************************** 3) State of the Union - Republican Response from Congressman Steve Largent (R-OK) on Reviving STAR WARS - A key "Individual Liberty" Issue INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY "First, we must preserve the notion that true liberty and freedom come from God and are His blessing on this land and that FREEDOM reigns only as we act responsibly toward God, each other and His creation. . . And the good news is that after six years of cutting spending for our armed forces, the president has signaled that he is ready to join us in strengthening our national defense. "We must never be complacent in what is still a dangerous world. Terrorists and rogue nations are rapidly acquiring technology to deliver weapons of mass destruction to our very doorstep. Most Americans are shocked to discover that our country is unshielded from the accidental or ruthless launch of even a single missile over our skies. Mr. President, we urge you to join Congress in establishing a viable missile defense system to protect the United States.. . 4) Cohen Announcement On January 20, Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced major steps toward deployment of a National Missile Defense, but avoided an outright commitment to a system that is years from testing. See COHEN ANNOUNCES PLAN TO AUGMENT MISSILE DEFENSE PROGRAMS http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan1999/b01201999_bt018-99.html http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/news99/t01201999_t0120md. htm & Cohen's National Missile Defense Statement: What Did It Mean? January 21, 1999 by John Isaacs, Council for a Livable World http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/coalition/clw12199.htm Apn 01/23 1131 Missile Threats By ROBERT BURNS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the six years since President Clinton's first defense secretary declared "the end of the Star Wars era," the administration has come nearly full circle in weighing the threat posed to America by long-range nuclear missiles. After years of insisting the threat lay far in the future, the administration says the future has arrived. "We are affirming that there is a threat, and the threat is growing," Defense Secretary William Cohen declared last week in announcing that the administration is asking Congress for $6.6 billion over the next five years to build a national defense against missile attack. Cohen's statement provoked criticism from Russia and China -- the only countries with nuclear missiles that can reach American territory. The comment also marked a turning point in the administration's view about whether small-scale nuclear wannabes like North Korea, Iran and Iraq can develop ballistic missiles with intercontinental range. As well, it brought the Democratic administration's approach closer in line with the Republicans, who have argued for years that Clinton was underestimating the missile threat. The Republicans favor a crash program to build missile defenses as soon as possible. At a flashy news conference in the Pentagon on May 13, 1994, then-Defense Secretary Les Aspin declared that the end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union meant the United States had no further need to invest heavily in a futuristic shield against all-out nuclear attack. Aspin officially killed the Strategic Defense Initiative that President Reagan launched in 1983, which became known as Star Wars for its emphasis on space-based weaponry to shoot down missiles. "This signals the end of the Star Wars era, and it signals the end of a battle that has raged in Washington for a decade over the best way to avoid nuclear war," Aspin declared. Aspin relegated the national missile defense work to a "technology" program -- meaning mainly lab work rather than engineering an actual weapons system. His successor, William Perry, began a turnaround in April 1996 by upgrading the program to "deployment readiness," to make the technology ready by 2000 for fielding as early as 2003. Perry saw a widening missile threat on the horizon but none on the doorstep. As recently as last year the view of U.S. intelligence agencies was that a long-range missile threat from potential Third World adversaries was unlikely to emerge before 2010. Cohen now says the threat has arrived, and a missile system must be built. Remaining questions are whether it can be made to work, how much it will cost and whether the United States will have to abrogate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in order to deploy it. Cohen said a formal decision on fielding a national missile defense will be made in June 2000. "We have many new threats with which to deal, and we need to make sure that we are able to fulfill our responsibilities regarding our own defenses," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Friday. Among questions this new emphasis on missile defense raises is "Why now? What's changed?" "What's changed over the last six or seven months has been an acceleration in the threat" from efforts by North Korea and Iran to develop and deploy long-range missiles -- "missiles that have the potential to reach our homeland if launched," said Robert Bell, senior director of defense programs and arms control on the White House's National Security Council. Last August North Korea fired a three-stage missile over Japan, signaling a surprising advance in missile technology, but it has no missile now that could reach U.S. soil. Air Force Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization -- created by Aspin to replace the Star Wars program office -- said the perceived missile threat is so great now that the Pentagon is willing to push its missile defense effort to a "high risk" pace. No other defense projects are being accelerated at this pace with as little testing done, he said. "We are doing this," he said, "because of the urgency of the need" for a defense. Some defense analysts are skeptical that the administration really intends to deploy missile defenses. Baker Spring, senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said he doubts either Cohen or Clinton is interested in accomplishing a national missile defense. But he saw "really good news" in Cohen's talk of the missile threat being immediate. "They have given up the idea that they can run away from the threat," Spring said. ***************************************************************** For more background on Ballistic Missile Defense see Physicians for Social Responsibility Fact Sheet http://www.psr.org/bmd.htm 5) Russia Response to Administration Plans Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline Friday, January 22, 1999 START-II BLASTED BY LEBED In an article in "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 21 January, Krasnoyarsk Krai Governor and possible presidential contender Aleksandr Lebed slammed the START-II treaty, urging the Duma not to ratify it. He said that ratification of the treaty "may cause irreparable damage to Russia's national security." Lebed called for a more drastic cut in the number of strategic offensive weapons owned by Russia and the U.S than that provided for by START-II, from 3,000-3,500 nuclear warheads to 1,500-1,700 each. The same day, Defense Minister Igor Sergeev praised the treaty, calling it "necessary and beneficial for Russia." START-II LINKED WITH ABM TREATY Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, head of the Defense Ministry's Department for International Military Cooperation, told Interfax on 21 January that the U.S.'s plans to review the ABM treaty could harm chances for ratification of the START-II treaty. The Duma is scheduled to debate the treaty in March. Ivashov said that "attempts to bypass the ABM treaty will upset strategic stability." In a letter sent to President Boris Yeltsin last week, U.S. President Bill Clinton proposed lifting the deployment of anti-missile defense systems, ITAR-TASS reported on 22 January. However, according to the agency, Robert Bell, special aide to Clinton on defense policy and arms control, said that deployment of such a system may not require amending the ABM treaty but that if modification is necessary the U.S. will work with Russia to reach an agreement. *************************************************************** 6) Jesse Helms on STAR WARS & the ABM Treaty Amend the ABM Treaty? No, Scrap It By Jesse Helms 01/22/99 The Wall Street Journal Under pressure from the Pentagon and congressional conservatives, President Clinton reluctantly decided to request $6.6 billion over six years in his new budget for missile-defense research. And Defense Secretary William Cohen announced yesterday that the administration wants permission from Russia to renegotiate the Antiballistic Missile Treaty. But administration officials have made it clear that unless the Russians are willing to give that permission, they have no intention of actually deploying a nationwide missile defense system. Why? Because the administration believes that any such deployment would violate the ABM Treaty. And, as National Security Adviser Samuel Berger affirmed in a speech just last week, "We remain strongly committed to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty [as] a cornerstone of our security." What that means is that in Mr. Berger's view, deploying even the most limited missile defense would require getting permission from Russia to revise the ABM Treaty. Consider that for a moment: The Clinton administration wants to negotiate permission from Russia over whether the U.S. can protect itself from ballistic missile attack by North Korea. The ABM Treaty is the root of our problems. So long as it is a "cornerstone" of U.S. security policy, as Mr. Berger says, we will never be able to deploy a nationwide missile defense that will provide real security for the American people. We do not need to renegotiate the ABM Treaty to build and deploy national missile defense. We can do it today. The ABM Treaty is dead. It died when our treaty partner, the Soviet Union, ceased to exist. But rather than move swiftly to declare the treaty dead, and to build and deploy a national missile defense, the Clinton administration is attempting to resuscitate the ABM Treaty with new protocols to apply its terms to Russia and all the other nuclear states that were once part of the Soviet Union. The world has changed a great deal since the ABM Treaty was first ratified 27 years ago. The U.S. faces new and very different threats today -- threats which are growing daily. China has 19 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 13 of which are aimed at the U.S. As recently as 1997 a senior Chinese official issued a veiled nuclear threat, warning that the U.S. would never come to the defense of Taiwan, because we Americans "care more about Los Angeles than we do Taipei." Saddam Hussein is doggedly pursuing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them, and the will of the international community to confront and disarm him is crumbling. Iran, which is also developing a nuclear capability, just tested a new missile -- built with Russian, Chinese and North Korean technology -- which can strike Israel and Turkey, a NATO ally. And, according to the Rumsfeld Commission, Iran "has acquired and is seeking advanced missile components that can be combined to produce ballistic missiles with sufficient range to strike the United States." If Iran succeeds, the commission warns, it will be capable of striking all the way to St. Paul, Minn. North Korea's unstable communist regime is forging ahead with its nuclear weapons program, and test-fired a missile over Japan last August which is capable of striking both Alaska and Hawaii. And Pyongyang is close to testing a new missile, the TD-2, which could allow it to strike the continental U.S. America is today vulnerable to ballistic missile attack by unstable outlaw regimes, and that missile threat will increase dramatically in the early years of the 21st century. What are we doing today, in this waning year of the 20th century, to defend ourselves against these emerging threats? Practically nothing. When the Senate votes on the new protocols expanding the ABM Treaty to Russia and other post-Soviet states, we will in fact be voting on the ABM Treaty itself. For the first time in 27 years, the Senate will have a chance to re-examine the wisdom of that dangerous treaty. If I succeed, we will defeat the ABM Treaty, toss it into the dustbin of history and thereby clear the way to build a national missile defense. The Clinton administration want to avoid that at all costs. So the president has delayed sending the new protocols to the Senate for approval. But Mr. Clinton does not have a choice -- he is required by law to submit the ABM protocols to the Senate. On May 14, 1997, Mr. Clinton agreed to explicit, legally binding language that he submit the protocols, a condition that I required during the ratification of another treaty, the Conventional Forces in Europe Flank Document. It has been 618 days since Mr. Clinton made that commitment under law. I am going to hold him to it. Today I am setting a deadline for the president to submit the ABM protocols to the Senate. I expect them to arrive by June 1. In the meantime, I will begin ratification hearings on the treaty shortly, so that the Foreign Relations Committee will be ready to vote and report the treaty to the full Senate by June 1. I say to the president: Let your administration make its case for the ABM Treaty, we will make our case against it, and let the Senate vote. If I have my way, the Senate this year will clear the way for the deployment of national missile defense. Not until the administration has submitted the ABM protocols and the Kyoto global-warming treaty, and the Senate has completed its consideration of them, will the Foreign Relations Committee turn its attention to other treaties on the president's agenda. Mr. Clinton cannot demand quick action on treaties he wants us to consider, and at the same time hold hostage other treaties he is afraid we will reject. The president must submit all of them, or we will consider none of them. - -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0172 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm A project of: Friends Committee on National Legislation Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 12:41:25 -0500 From: Bob Tiller Subject: (abolition-usa) New brochure Physicians for Social Responsibility is pleased to announce that in February we will publish a new four-color brochure on abolition of nuclear weapons, intended for mainstream distribution. The abolition movement needs some easy-to-read pieces that are intended for the general public, and we hope that this one will help to bring more people into our effort and enlarge our base. The brochure was explicitly written so that other organizations will be able to distribute it. While it mentions in two places that it is produced by PSR, that fact is not featured prominently. Indeed, it urges people to "join a group working to eliminate nuclear weapons," so our hope is that other groups will want to distribute it. The back panel is left blank, but it is not a self-mailer. Thus you can not only put your own mailing labels and postage, but also put on your own return address. The size is approximately 5x7 inches. We will provide up to 50 brochures free to any organization that wants them, though we will not pay for overnight mail. If you want more than 50, please contact me and we will discuss a price. For those who will be in Santa Barbara next month, I expect to have some copies available for you there. We hope that this brochure will be helpful to you and to the abolition effort. Shalom, Bob Tiller, Physicians for Social Responsibility phone 202-898-0150, ext. 220 fax 202-898-0172 e-mail - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 14:57:46 EST From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) (Fwd) False saviors Friends, This is one case where I will leave all "headers" intact in case you want to follow up. I personally do not respond to or forward petitions for two simple and not very honorable reasons. (1) I'm never quite sure how to sign and forward a petition and (2) I get between 60 and 150 posts a day and literally cannot cope with this flow. As a result I delete automatically any petitions - I always hope someone else is doing the right thing. As it turns out, these are not really helping anyone. In addition the petition on Afghan women has hit my monitor a dozen times, and one about gays and lesbians and (I think) American Airlines has come my way about 24 times in the last TWO YEARS. Consider the material below. And when circulating petitions, you need to understand that human limits force me to simple delete without action as soon as I find it is a petition. Peace, David McReynolds << Subj: (Fwd) False saviors Date: 1/26/99 10:20:07 AM Eastern Standard Time From: mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee, Orrville Ohio) Sender: err.processor@MennoLink.org Reply-to: mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee, Orrville Ohio), menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org To: menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org Friends, Any time an e-mail protest/chain letter appears, I get several, or many, copies sent my way. Is the following basically accurate? Opinions? Thanks! Susan Mark Landis ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Judi Broutin" To: dunfeld@juno.com, jbjohnson@ambs.edu, caroleeb@juno.com, keshlema@umich.edu, fierystudios@HOTMAIL.COM, BManko@cch.org, mcpjc@sssnet.com, JanisMM@umich.edu, ENafziger@juno.com, lsn@pvi.org, agparker@provide.net, LWaaSmith@provide.net, GWarkentin@juno.com, ifway@gwbmail.wustl.edu, sweaverd@umich.edu, carowill@hhs.net, LAMiller@umich.edu, dzaerr@ambs.edu Subject: False saviors Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 13:12:21 PST Re: afghanistan women Kathy and other friends... As important a subject as this is, I regret to inform you that e-mail chian letters are an improper form of protest. Read on to find a memo from Brandeis University, which is the school of origination. at the bottom, you will also find a link to the "urban legends" website, where this memo came form. I'm sorry to say, all this e-mailing is doing is perpetuating useless junk, IT IS NOT HELPING ANYONE. Brandeis memo: The information above is accurate and the cause worthy. Unfortunately, the well-meaning individual who created this message chose the wrong means by which to accomplish her goal. Here is Brandeis University's explanation for having cancelled that person's email privileges and deleting all submitted copies of the petition unread: Please read this message carefully, especially the next two sentences. Do not reply to this email. Do not forward this email to anyone else. Anyone who needs a copy, already has one. Do not make things worse. Do not "help" by forwarding this message to everyone who has corresponded with you on this subject. Due to a flood of hundreds of thousands of messages in response to an unauthorized chain letter, all mail to sarabande@brandeis.edu is being deleted unread. It will never be a valid email address again. If you have a personal message for the previous owner of that address, you will need to find some means other than email to communicate. sarabande@brandeis.edu was not an organization, but a person who was totally unprepared for the inevitable consequences of telling thousands of people to tell fifty of their friends to tell fifty of their friends to send her email. It is our sincere hope that the hundreds of thousands of people who continue to attempt to reply will find a more productive outlet for their concerns. There are several excellent organizations and individuals doing real work on the issues raised. Some of them were mentioned in sarabande's letter. None of them authorized her actions. We suggest that you contact them through non-virtual channels to help. They all have web sites with information and contact points. Unlike sarabande, they can channel your energy in useful directions. Do not let this incident discourage you. Please do not forward unverified chain letters, no matter how compelling they might seem. Propagating chain letters is specifically prohibited by the terms of service of most Internet service providers; you could lose your account. The URL of this page is: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blafghan.htm >> - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 21:23:59 -0600 (CST) From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: $50 Billion in Nuclear Liabilites - ------Begin forward message------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 11:41:00 -0500 From: Auke Piersma Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org Organization: Public Citizen To: nukenet@envirolink.org (****NUKE-NET*****), nuke-waste@igc.org (***NUKE-WASTE) Subject: $50 Billion in Nuclear Liabilites Reply-To: apiersma@citizen.org X-Sender: Auke Piersma Public Citizen News Release For Immediate Release: Contact: Jim Riccio, (202) 546-4996 Jan. 26, 1999 Auke Piersma, (202) 546-4996 STUDY SHOWS ELECTRICITY DEREGULATION COULD CAUSE UNFUNDED NUCLEAR WASTE LIABILITIES THAT MAY EXCEED $50 BILLION WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new study released today, Stranded Nuclear Waste, documents alarming funding shortfalls for decommissioning and nuclear waste storage. Authored by Synapse Energy Economics, the study indicates that electric utility deregulation will force early closure of many nuclear plants, facing policy-makers with difficult and controversial choices regarding future funding of nuclear plant decommissioning and waste storage costs totaling as much as $54 billion nationally. Of the 103 nuclear plants, as many as 90 could be forced to close before their scheduled retirement dates as a result of the competitive pressures expected from deregulation. "It has been evident for decades that nuclear power is expensive and dangerous," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project. "As the nuclear era dies out, the costs of nuclear power continually rise, and as a result ratepayers are forced to pay for the bailout of nuclear utilities." Because funding under current law assumes plants will run until their licenses expire, these economically driven plant closures would create an unfunded liability for nuclear plant decommissioning, potentially rising to $15.3 billion. "Since nuclear utilities are being unjustly enriched with a nuclear bailout, they should pay for the decommissioning of reactors," said Jim Riccio, a staff attorney with Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project. Early plant retirements will also create an unfunded liability for long-term storage of high level nuclear waste. This could total as much as $46.5 billion if economics force early closure of these plants, and a recent independent estimate of the total cost of the planned Yucca Mountain waste storage facility proves accurate. To make matters worse, H.R. 45, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999, exacerbates the problem by reducing the fees paid by the industry for nuclear waste storage. "It is outrageous that the nuclear industry is not paying the full costs of nuclear waste storage, but for Members of Congress to support a reduction of the fees is unthinkable," said Auke Piersma, a energy policy analyst with Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project. "Public Citizen will oppose any attempts to burden ratepayers or taxpayers with additional decommissioning or nuclear waste storage costs," Hauter said. "The utilities' past mistakes and bad management require that utility profits be used to balance the books." - ------End forward message--------------------------- - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #63 ********************************** - To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe $LIST" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.