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Grossman, Burtch Debate Nuclear Power
Roger Gonzalez
Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: Features
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This article origionaly appeared in the Monday, September 21, 1987 issue of The Clarkson Integrator.
A debate on nuclear power between Karl Grossman and Robert Burtch was staged at Clarkson Hall on Tuesday, September 15 Robert Burtch, a Niagara Mohawk spokesman and principal corporate contact with 20 years experience in nuclear power, defended the use of nuclear power against Karl Grossman, an investigative journalist and author of Power Crazy and Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know about Nuclear Power.
Karl Grossman was the first speaker. He claimed he didn't come to speak as an antagonist of nuclear energy, but that he just "presented unvarnished information." In addition to reams of documents which he claimed backed up his case, he also brought slides which highlighted his points. Despite his claims to objectivity, after the debate, an audience member expressed his opinion that "by his impassioned speaking it became clear early on that he was indeed speaking as a vehement antagonist of nuclear energy."
Mr. Grossman presented a great deal of statistical evidence to support his claims. He described one government report called "Wash-740," in which a severe nuclear accident was predicted to involve a minimum of 8,400 deaths and 48,000 severe injuries within a radius of 45 miles. He showed a paragraph from the report that started ,
"It is inevitable that structural failure, instrument malfunctions, operators' errors and other mishaps will occur (with equipment of this complexity)." He stated that another slide showed a section of a report by the Brookhaven National Labs, describing the finding that "the emergency core cooling system cannot be made foolproof." He also stated that the plant location, city or country, is irrelevant. In a big accident he claimed, an area the size of Pennsylvania would be affected.
According to Mr. Grossman, the latest figures from the Sandia National Labs "are frightening." He claimed this document gives the most detailed government report of what could happen in a nuclear accident to date. He read the figures for one plant, which he said predicted over 100,000 immediate deaths, 14,000 cancer related deaths. As a rebuttal, Robert Burtch claimed that his report was not a realistic one. He said that it was the result of a computer simulation using the absolute worst-case model. In addition, he said, many of the figures that Mr. Grossman used were for plant models not in use in the United States and plants with no containment structures.
A debate on nuclear power between Karl Grossman and Robert Burtch was staged at Clarkson Hall on Tuesday, September 15 Robert Burtch, a Niagara Mohawk spokesman and principal corporate contact with 20 years experience in nuclear power, defended the use of nuclear power against Karl Grossman, an investigative journalist and author of Power Crazy and Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know about Nuclear Power.
Karl Grossman was the first speaker. He claimed he didn't come to speak as an antagonist of nuclear energy, but that he just "presented unvarnished information." In addition to reams of documents which he claimed backed up his case, he also brought slides which highlighted his points. Despite his claims to objectivity, after the debate, an audience member expressed his opinion that "by his impassioned speaking it became clear early on that he was indeed speaking as a vehement antagonist of nuclear energy."
Mr. Grossman presented a great deal of statistical evidence to support his claims. He described one government report called "Wash-740," in which a severe nuclear accident was predicted to involve a minimum of 8,400 deaths and 48,000 severe injuries within a radius of 45 miles. He showed a paragraph from the report that started ,
"It is inevitable that structural failure, instrument malfunctions, operators' errors and other mishaps will occur (with equipment of this complexity)." He stated that another slide showed a section of a report by the Brookhaven National Labs, describing the finding that "the emergency core cooling system cannot be made foolproof." He also stated that the plant location, city or country, is irrelevant. In a big accident he claimed, an area the size of Pennsylvania would be affected.
According to Mr. Grossman, the latest figures from the Sandia National Labs "are frightening." He claimed this document gives the most detailed government report of what could happen in a nuclear accident to date. He read the figures for one plant, which he said predicted over 100,000 immediate deaths, 14,000 cancer related deaths. As a rebuttal, Robert Burtch claimed that his report was not a realistic one. He said that it was the result of a computer simulation using the absolute worst-case model. In addition, he said, many of the figures that Mr. Grossman used were for plant models not in use in the United States and plants with no containment structures.
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