THE NEWS & GOSSIP COLUMN

When I say "nuclear industry," I mean the people who set the tone in its relations with the public, and especially with the govern-ment; otherwise it is, of course, as varied and unsuited for generalization as the ice cream industry.

[My emphasis with the asterisks; text is Beckmann's]:

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Some of the finest people I have ever met are members of the nuclear industry: indeed, it takes no less than heroism to love one's work when the public is being daily brainwashed into regarding it as little better than child molestation.

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The Atomic Industrial Forum, whose publications I have so fre-quently recommended over the past 14 years, has just merged with the US Council for Energy Awareness (USCEA), whose publica-tions have been equally good, though as noted in the editorial, their advertising campaigns have been far from inspiring. Readers should note their address: 1735 I St. NW, Washington, DC 20006, for regardless of political matters, the technical publications of both organizations have always been accurate and highly informative.

And now to the gossip column. With the merger, former AIF director Carl Walske went into retirement. Walske was the archtype of the "don't breathe a word about comparisons with coal" school, who preferred PR gimmicks, compromise and politicking to con-frontation by the honest truth. I fervently hope the new USCEA management will be less benighted.

Closely allied to the CCC (Coal Comparison Coverup) school is the GGG (by the Good Grace of Government) lobby, which believes nuclear power can be imposed on the country from the White House, Congress, and the NRC. They crawl before types like Mo Udall and treat Markey as if he were human; they lament how their high hopes about Reagan or Baker were dashed when they failed to rescue the nuclear industry; they do not understand that a politician will nobly give his eyeteeth for nuclear power, or its pro-hibition, or both, if it serves the supreme aspiration of the human race, namely his re-election. But woe unto the nuclear supporters (such as the Moonies) who lack the right credentials for the Washington establishment: then the Knights of the GGG will rise from the Washington carpets on which they have been kneeling, and suddenly filled with bold militancy, they will ringingly condemn such usurpers lest the Gods of Congress and the Bureaucracy think the GGG's have anything in common with such pronuclear scum. The typical member of this school is John Graham, Washington correspondent of the ANS (Amer. Nucl. Soc.) News. Tragically, he lacks Walske's most endearing property: he is not yet in retirement.

These two, I repeat, are typical of the tone-setters of policy, but not of the rank-and-file in the industry, least of all of its technicians, engineers and scientists.

Sometimes I am asked why I defend an industry that is unwilling or unable to defend itself.

First of all, I defend nuclear technology, not the nuclear industry's policies.

But then I tell the questioner the old joke about the two Jews who had escaped from Nazi Germany and were making their way to America. In mid-Atlantic, the ship was torpedoed by a U-boat, and as the lifeboats of the sinking ship were lowered, one of them lamented, wept, and fell to his knees to pray. "Why are you carry-ing on so, Izzy?" asked the other. "Is it your ship?"

Yes, America's energy is my ship; and yours, too.