EC hosts pro-con nuclear speakers
> pro-nuclear power engineers spoke
ek at Clackamas Community College,
eakers were; Wilber L. Ness, Environ-
Engineer for Pacific Power and Light
and Richard F. Furrer, Senior Sub
Engineer for Portland General Elec-
3E). Both companies have interests in
r power plants.
turnout was minimal but the two
jrs offered to dismiss the lecture and
d instead with an informal question
swer session.
lere is a basic criteria followed in the
of nuclear fission plants called the
failure criteria," said Furrer, "and it
that nuclear plants are designed so
i the event of a single failure, a whole
i will not go out." Furrer added that
ncept of a total breakdown resulting
a single incident was very remote.
3 have had a superb industrial accident
said Ness, who has nine years experi-
is a health physicist. "The complete
r power industry program, from the
/e started our weapons program in
until the present, has seen only seven
killed from radiation," Ness said,
lone of them were in a power reactor,
M|e were in test reactors, and the re-
er of the deaths happened in auxili-
:uations such as testing in the labora-
j two nuclear advocates told of a study
Jiation levels around the country. A
from Oregon discovered that the ra-
t ilevel was different throughout the
is difference in level, the group be-
, was due to the natural radiations
on the earth, such as underground
im and cosmic radiation from the sun.
plants, "then the radiation level you experi
ence is no more than one-tenth of a unit per
year."
"Using this comparison," said Ness, "the
radiation impact upon the environment by
nuclear reactors is trivial. They (people a-
gainst nuclear power) should be going after
the medical profession because they're al
most doubling the average of radiation
Americans are getting each year."
For
nuclear
power
The engineers agreed plutonium was toxic
and declared that although 24,000 years
was the half-life (time required for a pound
of plutonium to be reduced to one half-
pound), a substance like uranium would take
far longer, three million years to undergo
the same process.
"We've done things we know about but
probably shouldn't have done," said Ness,
referring to the atmospheric testing of nu
clear weapons in the late fifties by China,
Russia, France, and the United States.
Over 61/2 tons of plutonium remained in
the atmosphere and, gradually, 90 percent
of that came back into the earth.
By Harry Bielskis
News Editor
A similar exposure can be credited to tele
vision, jet planes, and the x-ray and radi
ation treatment used by doctors and hospi
tals.
"There is a mystique about radiation be
cause we have lived thousands of years with
radiation," said Ness, "and the average per
son is exposed to at least 100 units of
natural radiation a year." A cross country
jet flight alone, due to the altitude will in
duce five units of radiation, Ness said.
"If you live near a nuclear plant," said
Furrer, who lives within 60 miles of nine
We have located much of that fallout by
pinpointing affected soil areas. The latency
period for cancer is about 15 years, and
using the Southern Hemisphere as a type of
control group, our research has shown no
difference as to the mass exposure of dilute
amounts of radiation," declared Ness.
A final question directed to the engineers
was the probability of theft or misues of
plutonium. The nuclear spokesmen agreed
a bomb could be made with high-grade
atomic elements but the procuration of such
elements would be impossible without inter
national approval of all countries involved
with nuclear energy.
c—
Against
nuclear
power
By Barbara Dikty
I Staff Writer
amas Community College
"We need laws like Ballot Measure No. 9
so people can have a voice in decisions that
vitally concern them," a speaker for Nuclear
Safeguards said here Friday.
Robert Pollard, ex-project manager or the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, spoke at
CCC last Friday about his reasons for re
signing the commission and supporting Mea
sure No. 9.
According to Pollard, there are regulations
on the books that look all right on paper
but are no good for practical use.
In each power plant there must be a
main control room and an auxiliary control
room. The reasoning here being if the main
control room is destroyed, the plant will be
able to be turned off in the auxiliary control
room.
"However," said Pollard, "the auxiliary
control room is wired into the main control
room, so if the main control room is de
stroyed, the auxiliary control room is as
good as dead also."
Another regulation on the books is that
in pressurized water reactor plants like
Trojan, when the reactor core overheats,
cold water is usually pumped around the
core to cool it down.
"But," said Pollard, if the reactor core
isn't cooled off within 30 seconds, "nothing
can stop the fuel from melting."
When the internal temperature reaches
5,000 degrees Farenheit, the building would
rupture, releasing radiation 1,000 times the
strength of a Hiroshima bomb.
Another problem brought up by Pollard
was that of radioactive wastes. At the mo
ment, wastes from plants like Trojan are
being stored next to the plant itself, under
ground, in tanks of water. This is only
temporary, he points out, the storage space
is almost filled up and there is as yet no
safe way to dispose of the wastes.
Opposition to Measure 9 says that by
building more nuclear power plants, Ameri
ca will use up less of its natural resources.
But already America's supply of uranium
is dwindling.
"America will run out of Uranium by the
late 80's and 90's," said Pollard.
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