Department of Energy Quotes

At the time there was very little such legislation or regulation, and the little there was only occurred after massive lobbying efforts by organized labor. In modern times, often it takes a horrible tragedy to occur before the political will can be mobilized to cope with issues of occupational health and safety.

There have been dozens of serious nuclear accidents almost all of which were withheld from the public and even many of the civilian scientists who were trying to make the bombs error proof, but who did not know the details of the kinds of human errors that were being committed. The motivations for the secrecy were multiple. There was the usual one of saving the military from embarrassment which is typical throughout the government where they have the right to classify information. But another reason was the military leaders did not want the civilians to regain control. See {637984}. Perhaps most important, they did not want to provide ammunition for the anti-nuclear movement to have the incidents with which they could scare the public and erode public support for a large nuclear weapons program.

While this sounds like an idiotic statement, at the time very little was known by anyone about the effects of large doses of radiation. Groves had not then the benefit of the medical reports or interviews about the Japanese who had received high doses of radiation from the 2 atomic bomb attacks.

The article showed how a nuclear bomb worked. The Government attempted to suppress the publication by getting a Federal court injunction. Day and others claimed the article was based on public sources. It was. The U. S. Court of Appeals lifted the injunction and the article was published.

The congresswoman was touring the House gymnasium facilities when Congressman Silvio Conte emerged naked from the steam room. When asked about the incident she explained:

Interior Secretary J. A. Krug

3rd Earl Russell of Kingston

Rickover, the father of the nuclear submarine was not only an expert in nuclear reactors and power, but he was known as a safety perfectionist with a safety record in the Navy that is still marveled at. President Carter, as a naval officer, had worked for Rickover and himself was technologically knowledgeable about nuclear power. He asked his old mentor to chair the investigating the Three Mile Island incident. Rickover actually recommended to the President that much of the report be secret, assuming that reform would take place quickly if the nuclear power industry were not killed by the damning expose of inept personnel and the lack of safety processes with a very dangerous process. However, few reforms were made nationally, and Rickover, 6 years later, grew to regret his recommendation for secrecy.

Most Americans believed that only the President could authorize a nuclear strike. However, that was not so. This secret memorandum gave many military officers the right to strike if they thought it was an “emergency”. So for example, the Commanding general of the Strategic Air Command could order a nuclear attack if he thought that it was an emergency. The scenario of the film Dr. Strangelove was therefore much more plausible than most people assumed. Individual general officers had a such authority and they could have a mental breakdown or a hyperaggressive personality and philosophy. It is not know how long this non-Presidential nuclear use authority lasted or was expanded or what the secret current status might be.

Leaders of the nuclear powers were uttering nonsense like this to keep public fear of nuclear war to a minimum. See {618658} and {618657}.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

At the time, the mine owners and operators claimed that they had NO obligations to their workers—not even to ensure a safe mine. There was no OSHA and workers died and were maimed on the job much more frequently than they do today. Many mine owners now accept that they have obligations to the workers, and the rest are required to have responsible and safe working conditions by law and OSHA regulations.