Department of Energy Secretary Chu

Secretary Steven Chu, US Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20585

Greetings Secretary Chu:
The Hanford Dose Reconstruction Project estimates my exposure at birth and for the first two years of my life at 2,900,000 MREMS of radiation in 1946. I’ve beat cancer two times and have had multiple health challenges in my sixty-three years. Eight of ten of my school friends are dead from cancer. Four of six of my immediate family has experienced cancer, two died from it. I’m alive because a Chinese M.D., fourth generation Acupuncturist, etc. treated me until I was cancer free. I still have other challenges that are a part of Radiation Sickness Syndrome and have had eight surgeries. I have spent my life seeking a way to stay alive.
I have researched nuclear power, Hanford, Chernobyl, Radiation and the history of the Atom. My bread board’s wood held up the drafting table that redesigned the Enola Gay to be able to drop the first atomic bombs.
At this time it will take the clean-up crews at Hanford 167 years to vitrify to glass the contents of storage tanks that leak radiation into the water table next to the Columbia River.
Between Three Mile Island and a Washington State Initiative that made the stock holders liable for cost over-runs rather than rate payers building new plants stopped.
Before this folly is taken up again it would be wise to review what was done wrong, find which safety features are lacking and open the warehouse full of black boxes that were filled with ignored as unsolvable problems by the AEC (because of cost considerations). When an agency of government is charged with both promoting and regulating such a potentially harmful or even deadly program the conflict creates a need for secrecy and bad decisions.
One critical problem that is flashing red and all regulators seem color blind to it is the emergency back up system that requires water (that would not be there) to push hydraulics up for an emergency shut down of the reactor core. I forget if this is a Westinghouse or General Electric design problem.
If you haven’t read “The Cult of the Atom: Secrets of the Atomic Energy Commission” by Daniel F. Ford published in 1982 by Simon and Schuster you would be wise to do so. So many of the problems of nuclear power plants were discovered as the new technology came online. The need to justify nuclear power as practicable was so great that if a critical problem would cost money it was black boxed and buried. I’ve attached a book review.
There are several other unintended consequences that have been suppressed through time that really should be addressed that are not covered by Mr. Ford’s book. If you are interested I could put together a briefing for you.
I spent a decade researching the moral and political thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi when I married into the family and administered special projects for the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation. I’ve participated with world leaders strategizing Global Survival at Conferences in Toronto, Oxford and Moscow. Now I do document searches of peer reviewed science, submit official comments to various public policy formulation processes and write poetry.

Speaking and working for a Quality Common Future for Our Seventh Generation,
Theresa Marie K. Gandhi
P.O. Box 437, Clinton, WA 98236 360-341-1218
www.tmgandhi.com tm@tmgandhi.com