ECHOES AND UPDATES

1) The "secret number" of deaths at railroad crossings involving coal trains bound for power plants given last month, I now see from Comparing the health and environmental hazards of different energy systems by L.D. Hamilton, Brookhaven Natl. Lab. Report 32275-R (1982), is actually the number of injuries, not necessarily fatal. The number of fatalities is smaller: 0.4 deaths per 1000 MW coal-fired capacity per year. Thus the number of such deaths in 1984 was "only" 150 -- but it is still kept secret by both antinukes protesting nuclear fuel transportation and by the over-timid nuclear industry.