THE CASE OF THE MISSING REPORT NUMBER

The seasoned reader of such newspapers as Pravda or The Washington Post (both censored by their own editors) will read what they say, but look for what they leave out. And what they have left out here is the number of the Sandia Lab report. Why?

Because the report alluded to, number NUREG/CR-2239, SAND81-1549, Technical guidance for siting criteria development, contains no table even remotely similar to the one published by the Poses amateurish tricksters. It contains no statements even remotely justifying the hoax.

What the Post's dummies were handed by Markey or Kendall's "scientists" was a "parametric range run," which is to the actual study as clearing one's throat is to a subsequent speech.

Let us explain. A computer simulation, like other computer programs, must assign numerical values to the constants, variables or "parameters" in the calculation. If you are simulating the effects of rocks rolling down a mountain slope, you will doubtlessly use the constant of gravitational acceleration, which in the real world is 9.81m/Sec^2, but which for testing or scientific purposes you can give any value you please. You can reverse its sign, making the rocks roll uphill and coffee spill from cups until it hits the ceiling; you can change the numerical value to make the rocks roll at speeds of a mile per second or an inch per century. Such "throat clearing" background computer runs are executed for testing the program, for probing the sensitivity of the resulting effects to changes in various parameters, and for other reasons. They are never included in the final report on the "valid" simulations, but in NRC contracts are habitually sent to the NRC by the contractor. In this case, a single microfiche of such background runs was sent to the NRC, and this is what Kendall's "scientists" or the Hon. (stands for "honorable") Edward Markey used for duping the Post's incompetent dummies and scaring the daylights out of laymen.

How that one microfiche got into the clean hands of these honorable gentlemen is not easy to establish; for the NRC bureaucrats will only say "We don't want to get involved" and "We don't want to Point a finger at any one." Which is understandable, for they live in acute danger of a heart attack every time they perceive their own shadow on the rare occasions when they take some fresh air.