503 



on the way to my first out-of-town interview. The vibrations and noise in the cabin 

 between the wings was so loud and irritating, that I was forced to sit in the tail 

 section to avoid it somewhat. I could not help feeling that something was obviously 

 drasticaly wrong mechanically. Shortly thereafter, the wings started falling off in 

 flight, causing seveal fatal crashes. At that point, there was only one safe answer to 

 the problem, they were all grounded indefiniately. Only after extensive redesigning, 

 were they allowed to resume flying. 



If safety is truly our prime consideration about radioactive hazards, then the facts 

 available today require that we must adopt the following: 



1. Halt immediately all land and ocean dumping of any radioactive wastes. 



2. Halt all further production of nuclear power plants and weaponry. 



3. Phase out existing nuclear power production as soon as possible. Consisting of 

 only 13 percent of our nation's electrical energy mix, it can be readily replaced by a 

 combination of conservation, existing fossil fuels, and adequately funded renewable 

 energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass conversion. 



4. Design and construct as soon as possible (from two to five years), an interim 

 (fifty to one hundred years to buy us precious time), maximum retrievable, below- 

 ground storage facility for all low- and high-level radioactive wastes. 



5. Initiate and implement, as soon as possible, remedial health measures to 

 combat our massively expanding radiation-caused cancer and genetic damage to 

 untold future generations. Certain substances have already proven effective in 

 removing radioactivity from the human body. (Appendix D) 



6. Redirect public funds from 2. and 3. above to develop ecological technologies 

 ("Ecology"), and to investigate and create a method of deactivating deadly radioac- 

 tivity. 



CONCLUSIONS 



In the final analysis, the nuclear question in general, and radioactive wastes 

 specifically, is too important to be left up to politicians, agencies, or corporations 

 alone. It is a matter for decision of, by, and for the people. This could best be 

 accomplished by a nation-wide referendum equally funded to both sides of the 

 controversy by a Federal tax check-off, as is now done with Presidential elections. 



More immediately, the lesson of California's Proposition 13 should not be lost on 

 the elected and appointed representatives of "we, the people." The nuclear arms 

 race and the radioactive poisoning of our planet proves that existing government 

 policy does not work. Unless our representatives listen to simple sanity, "No nukes, 

 or no money" will be the bottom line. It can manifest as a tax-payers' revolt at the 

 Federal income tax level. Or it can be the campaign slogan to elect an environmen- 

 tal safety conscious House of Representatives in this fall's coming elections. The 

 House constitutionally originates bills of revenue, and as the saying goes, "cash is 

 king." 



It is ironic that our civilization should be faced with extinction of our own making 

 at the same time that we reach for the stars and imortality. I hope that I have been 

 able to defuse to some extent the mood of confrontation on the nuclear question, 

 and shed some light on possible areas of co-operation towards mutual safety and 

 survival. After all, the lives we save will be our own and our future generations of 

 children. Wake-up America, it is our spiritual destiny to show the way. And, "where 

 there is a will, there is a way." Put the "us" back in the USA. 



Mr. GoLiCH. I am Conrad Golich, a private consultant on radioac- 

 tive waste management to Project Tektite, a San Francisco based 

 nonprofit educational and research organization concerned with 

 the oceans. 



My technical background includes a bachelors degree in me- 

 chanical engineering and graduate work in industrial design from 

 the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. I have approximately 

 8 years experience as a systems engineer and technical writer for 

 corporations in the aerospace industry on projects such as the 

 Titan missile, the Agena satellite, nuclear submarine communica- 

 tions, and hydraulics for nuclear powerplants. 



I have 4 years of experience involving the subject of radioactive 

 waste management as a result of studying the Farallon Island 

 radioactive waste dumpsite off the coast of San Francisco, and 



