(Originally published Thursday, June 18, 2015 on http://haltfermi.blogspot.com/)
on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
March and rally on August 8, 2015 10:30 AM Bissell Park, Oak Ridge, Tenn. [Seehttps://www.google.com/maps/@36.0120932,-84.2630897,18z?hl=en for location.]
About 1942, the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. produced a secret agreement and subsequently expanded it: to mine the uranium, build reactors to produce nuclear weapons material, expose humans and other life forms to ionizing radiation at whatever level necessary, produce, test, and use atomic weapons.
All other uses for nuclear reactors were an after thought and dependent on public funding and governmental indemnification of reactor owners; without which, no commercial reactor would have ever existed. Commercial reactors—-Watts Bar, TN—-produce nuclear weapons material today. The first purpose of Fermi 1 was to produce nuclear weapons material. Reactors and nuclear weapons are joined at the hip, spawning each other and an enormous legacy of high (lethal in minutes), mid and low level radionuclides; for which there is no solution except shield and monitor into eternity.
There is no safe level (National Academy of Sciences).
In 1945, 3 high level U.S. military commanders—-Generals Eisenhower and Lemay (Army Air Force) and Admiral Leahy (top military commander during WWII)—- opposed the use of the atomic bomb on Japan saying it was unnecessary and (Leahy) that it was immoral. Japan’s efforts to negotiate a surrender had been under way. General Lemay had said “there are no civilians in Japan” and had fire bombed Japanese population centers killing 900,000 civilians. Nonetheless, he said of atomic bombing of Japan, “It’s anticlimactic. The verdict is in”.
61 scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to produce the atomic bomb opposed its use on Japan or other population centers. They were told by Secretary of State Byrne that this was about Russia, not Japan. President Truman had made the decision to use the atomic bomb.
General Groves, who oversaw the Manhattan Project, wanted a target that had not had any previous bombardment.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were listed as a test until 1998.
President John Kennedy was determined to end the threat of nuclear war and end the cold war. He achieved back channel communication and cooperation of Khrushchev and the support of Pope John the 23rd in avoiding nuclear war over the Cuba and Berlin crises. Steps were to be taken to achieve non-aligned or neutral status of other nations.
Kennedy said he knew he was a marked man and feared a coup but was determined in his efforts.The military was pushing hard for a first strike nuclear attack on Russia. Kennedy’s service to humanity was at the cost of his life. He clearly indicated that he understood that.
The Israeli Defense minister recently cited the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as precedent for action Israel might take. In the Desert Storm war, Israel had its nuclear missiles pointed at Iraq.
In a survey reported in 2012, 73% of Americans said they supported abolition of nuclear weapons. Asked a different question, 78% said nuclear weapons are necessary for security. But the reality is that nuclear weapons combine homicide and suicide in a single act. Humans are the only species that, at an accelerated pace, is fatally destroying its own nest and maintains the requisite circumstances for its own extermination.
The continuing disaster of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima and all of the nuclear reactor accidents on record and the development and testing of nuclear weapons, as well as “normal operation” of nuclear reactors have resulted in broad spectrum illness, morbidity and genetic mutations. In 2003, the European Committee on Radiation Risk estimated that there were 123,000,000 cancers with 61,000,000 deaths from nuclear weapons testing.
U.S. nuclear missiles remain on hair trigger alert and the U.S. has historically asserted a prerogative of first strike preemptive use under varying circumstances.
The U.S. remains determined to build a new uranium production facility at Oak Ridge with a capacity of 80 new nuclear warheads per year. For more on this: orepa.org For transportation to the August 8th event [from the Metro Detroit area]: Kim Joy Bergier: 2MISTBC@gmail.com Cell 248-515-2380.
Philip Berrigan subsumed all of the nuclear legacy in saying “I go to my death with the firm conviction that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth. To mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself.”
Vic Macks, Michigan Stop the Nuclear Bombs Campaign, Peace Action of Michigan, Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 vicmacks3@gmail.com
Article by Vic Macks; posted by Art Myatt