ANNIVERSARIES

Eleven years ago (3/27/79) the Grand Disaster that killed nobody happened at Three Mile Island. The worst part of the clean-up job, removing 100 tons of fuel from the reactor vessel (mostly under remote control), was completed in February, and a year from now all of TMI2 is expected to be placed under monitored storage. So much for the wise men who claim that planned decommissioning of nuclear plants is an unsolved pro-blem. Meanwhile TMI1 bagged the 1989 world record with an astounding capacity factor of 100.3% (delivered to rated power;

100% can be exceeded if, at times, the rated power is surpassed). St. Amory's kindergarten arithmetic always assumes a"generous" capacity factor of 60%. TMI1 is the undamaged reactor that politicians kept closed for over 5 years, killing some 300 people by the substitute power. But the pols thrive on. One of them, then governor of Pennsylvania R. Thornburg, has made it to the highest administrator of justice in the US.

One year ago the Exxon Valdez ran into a reef and spilled part of its load. Contrary to the hate campaign waged against its captain Hazelwood (even by Exxon's servile board members), the jury found no evidence that he was drunk, and his absence from the bridge at the crucial moment was standard practice. Apparent- ly (I am a layman here) he displayed superior seamanship in safeguarding the remaining cargo of several million gallons. Alaska law sets the maximum fine at $1,000 (says the Ntl. Rev.), but the judge fined him $50,000 anyway; a New York breast-beating judge had previously compared the damage to Hiroshima. Had the ener- gy been transported as nuclear fuel, a truck could have handled it, and as pointed out by an Israeli reader, no wildlife would have been injured if it had been spilled. For the confiscatory taxes im- posed on the oil companies and paid by drivers at the gasoline pump, the Coast Guard could have built a floodlit monument on the reef, of Jimmy Carter blaring his lectures on the o'l com'nies, to scare ships away, yet the Coast Guard and the US government, far from defending themselves, played the role of accusers. Audubon printed a cartoon "Signs of Civilization" in a recent issue. It showed four signs: Beach Closed, Water not safe for drinking, Three Mile Island, and Exxon. Where do they get the money to print their lavish magazine? To a considerable part from Mr. Wafford and the other Princes of Exxon [AtE Dec 82], who to this day spend mil- lions in futile appeasement money. With billions of gallons of oil shipped across the world, more such spills are bound to happen sooner or later, and in spite of the Valdez, Exxon has a better prevention program than many others. Yet Exxon will now be tried on criminal charges to satisfy the thirst for blood built up by the media masquerading as environmentalists. I, for one, am gleefully hoping for a ruinous fine: it is only what Exxon would otherwise obsequiously use to finance its own enemies