alternatehistory.com
Jul. 18, 1968
July 18, 1968
Humphrey meets with anti-nuclear activists
Yesterday, the first-ever Environment Day [1] was held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, only 33 miles from the site of the Fermi meltdown. Since the Fermi meltdown, the environment has become an important issue to many voters, and many political figures are eager to show their concern for it. The event was organized by a bipartisan committee that includes Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey from California and Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin. The most important attendee was the Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who met with anti-nuclear activists, scientists, and several concerned citizens. [2] Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) and consumer advocate Ralph Nader were also in attendance.
The event's keynote speaker was Larry Bogart, [3] the leader of the influential anti-nuclear power organization known as the Citizens Energy Council (CEC). Last year, Bogart gave up a lucrative career in the nuclear power industry to warn the public about the dangers of the “peaceful atom.” [4] He now leads an organization with 3,000 members.
“Nuclear power is an idea whose time has gone,” says Bogart. “The only thing that will keep it going for perhaps a little while yet is the enormous amount of capital that has been sunk into this high technology. Nuclear power has failed to achieve either technological or economic maturity. It is still not possible to standardize reactors because design flaws keep showing up.” [5]
Bogart also raised concerns about the health effects of atomic plants. “The invisible materials that are emitted by a nuclear power plant are far worse pollutants than anything that ever came out of a coal-fired plant,” says Bogart. “Everything that the waste touches becomes radioactive…We are now killing on the average of a hundred people a day from these wastes…We think that plutonium particularly will have this tremendous genetic kick which will only be registered in the generation that will start reproducing around the year 2000.” [6]
Humphrey meets with anti-nuclear activists
Yesterday, the first-ever Environment Day [1] was held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, only 33 miles from the site of the Fermi meltdown. Since the Fermi meltdown, the environment has become an important issue to many voters, and many political figures are eager to show their concern for it. The event was organized by a bipartisan committee that includes Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey from California and Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin. The most important attendee was the Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who met with anti-nuclear activists, scientists, and several concerned citizens. [2] Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) and consumer advocate Ralph Nader were also in attendance.
The event's keynote speaker was Larry Bogart, [3] the leader of the influential anti-nuclear power organization known as the Citizens Energy Council (CEC). Last year, Bogart gave up a lucrative career in the nuclear power industry to warn the public about the dangers of the “peaceful atom.” [4] He now leads an organization with 3,000 members.
“Nuclear power is an idea whose time has gone,” says Bogart. “The only thing that will keep it going for perhaps a little while yet is the enormous amount of capital that has been sunk into this high technology. Nuclear power has failed to achieve either technological or economic maturity. It is still not possible to standardize reactors because design flaws keep showing up.” [5]
Bogart also raised concerns about the health effects of atomic plants. “The invisible materials that are emitted by a nuclear power plant are far worse pollutants than anything that ever came out of a coal-fired plant,” says Bogart. “Everything that the waste touches becomes radioactive…We are now killing on the average of a hundred people a day from these wastes…We think that plutonium particularly will have this tremendous genetic kick which will only be registered in the generation that will start reproducing around the year 2000.” [6]
[1] Based on Earth Day, first held less than two years later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day#Santa_Barbara's_Environmental_Rights_Day_1970 . See also https://heritage.umich.edu/stories/earth-day-eve/
[2] In OTL, Humphrey’s only comments on the environment was to dedicate a park and a dam: https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/earth-day-recollections-what-it-was-when-movement-took.html
[3] A prominent figure in the early anti-nuclear power movement. Perhaps there will be a Humphrey-Bogart ticket?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Bogart
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/20/...al-critic-of-nuclear-power-is-dead-at-77.html
[5] His own words from 1977: https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/27/archives/the-case-against-nuclear-power.html
[6] Bogart in 1980 (shortly after Three Mile Island).
[2] In OTL, Humphrey’s only comments on the environment was to dedicate a park and a dam: https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/earth-day-recollections-what-it-was-when-movement-took.html
[3] A prominent figure in the early anti-nuclear power movement. Perhaps there will be a Humphrey-Bogart ticket?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Bogart[4] https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/20/...al-critic-of-nuclear-power-is-dead-at-77.html
[5] His own words from 1977: https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/27/archives/the-case-against-nuclear-power.html
[6] Bogart in 1980 (shortly after Three Mile Island).
- dartingfog
- Word Count: 340