10/24/07

Over 700 Californians have lost their homes.  Over 500,000 residents have been evacuated.  Hundreds of thousands of acres have been burned.  People and wildlife have been lost.  The California wildfires have raged for days out of control.  Families of Creative Youth Team members are in evacuation zones.  The Creative Youth News Team wishes the best for those affected by the wildfires and asks everyone to chip in.

The tragic loss of homes and lives over the last few days underscores the need to fix the climate and find clean safe, alternative fuels.  Nuclear power is not one of them.

While the TV was focusing on fires near homes, the Creative Youth News Team's attention was caught by the possible deaths of tens of millions from a fire quickly approaching San Onfre Nuclear Power Station.    While some, ignoring massive amounts of carcinogenic nuclear waste produced by fission nuclear power plants, choose to believe that nuclear power is clean, those who look at the whole picture know that fission nuclear power is the most unsafe and unclean type of power in America.

Proponents of nuclear energy won't talk about accidents or meltdowns.  Ice Resident Cheney's income from Halliburtion depends on everyone not knowing the dangers or nuclear anything,  Dick Cheney makes a great deal of money off Halliburton, which is in the nuclear business.

In the wake of 9/11, there was talk of a possible plan for a fifth plane aimed at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station.  Reportedly, Flight 93 was headed towards the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant.  The number of deaths likely to result from a major incident at San Onofre would dwarf the number of deaths in New York on 9/11.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been very lax in enforcement of federal regulations. Testifying before Congress, Dave Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, has criticized the commission, saying that it has let plants cut back on safety checks and operate with dangerously worn equipment.

These problems are increased by the fact that nuclear energy is the dirtiest form of energy on the planet.  This is why the government allowed specifications to be faked to allow it to move forwards with plans to hide much of the waste in an inactive volcano, above a major earthquake fault, above an aquifer with groundwater flowing to the Colorado River, next to one of the largest organic farms in America.  Check out nuclear waste plans for the California coast: http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/cabargefactsheet92804.pdf

San Onofre has a history of potentially dangerous incidents: fires, explosions, radiation leaks, intrusions, violence, and other problems.  Last year alone there were more than a dozen more than minor incidents that could have gone major, leaving much of Southern California a wasteland.

The Creative Youth News Team does not remember Chernobyl because we weren't born when it occurred.  However, the 500,000 deaths caused by the incident are nothing compared to the tens of millions of deaths likely to be caused by a major incident at San Onofre.  San Onofre is in a much more heavily populated Southern California.

San Onofre is between Los Angeles and San Diego.  It is just below the coastal city of San Clemente.  There is a beach at San Onofre that was popularized by the Beach Boys' song "Surfin USA."  Children and people play on the beach.  Expectant mothers wade in the surf, oblivious to radioactive waste present in the water.

Nearby at Las Palmas Elementary School, students line up outdoors for their morning assemblies.  Lunchtime involves activities supervised by the YMCA.  The school receives federal assistance because most of its students are poor students who score poorly on standardized tests, despite help with the answers coming from the teachers.  The school blames the parents and the students for the low test scores while more advanced students, feeling under-educated, blame the teachers for not trusting the students to learn.  Most of Las Palmas students are Hispanic, latchkey kids with nobody to protect them from radiation.  Their parents trust the government to keep their children safe as school. Most of the students are happy and enjoy learning.  In the event of a major incident at San Onofre, these children will be among the first to die.

Everyone reading this can save the beach-goers, the students at Las Palmas, the residents of San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Oceanside, Vista, Carlsbad and a great many other cities including Los Angeles and San Diego from a nuclear nightmare. Anyone who cares can take action to demand the closure of San Onofre before the disaster occurs.

Copyright ©2007 by the Creative Youth News Team.

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