Three Mile Island: One Year One Year Later

New York (LNS)-As the anti-nuclear movement marked the first anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident with rallies across the country March 28 and 29, it was still far too early to calculate the long-term human and environmental damage that may have been caused by radiation released from the crippled plant. But statistics that are already available show that fallout from the accident has already claimed one victim-the nuclear industry itself.

According to Energy Department records, utilities in the U.S. didn't place a single order for a new nuclear reactor during all of 1979 or the first three months of 1980. During the same period, they cancelled 17 earlier orders and failed to obtain licenses for eight new plants they hoped to bring on line.

But shed no tears for the nuclear industry. With a little help from their friends in Washington, industry officials insist they're doing just fine.

For one thing, they are cashing in on their own previous mistakes. As Dr. Bertram Wolfe, who heads General Electric's nuclear fuel and services division, explains, "Because of all the regulatory changes that have grown out of Three Mile Island, our service business is successful and profitable." The same goes for Westinghouse, another major manufacturer of reactors, according to Wolfe's counterpart there, Theodore Stern.

Another factor helping the nuclear industry ride out its post-TMI slump is new markets. Following the example of other polluting industries whose products have been forced off the market at home, reactor manufacturers are busy peddling their wares overseas, particularly in the Third World. Despite pious government warnings against nuclear proliferation, their overseas-sales efforts have gotten a big boost. from Washington. In many cases, in fact,. financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) has proved decisive in fending off competition from European competitors.

From 1959 to 1979, Eximbank supported the sale of about 48 nuclear plants and fuel to 16 countries, with loans and guarantees totaling some $6 billion. And the level of Eximbank support has shot up even as domestic sales have gone into a tailspin. After. 1973, and long before Three Mile Island, sales of reactors in the U.S. began to plummet, as public opposition and construction costs soared. Between 1974 and 1976 alone, as domestic orders dropped from 34 a year to only 4, Eximbank's direct loans and finan cial guarantees for nuclear reactors abroad added up to $2.4 billion--equal to the total handed out during the previous 12 years.

With help from 12 units it is building overseas and 11 more under license, GE's Dr. Wolfe maintains his company "right now [has] more work than we can accomplish." Eximbank has also done well by Westinghouse, which grabbed 11 foreign reactor contracts backed by Eximbank dollars between 1974 and late June, 1978.

-But the future of the nuclear industry may not be quite as rosy as people such as Wolfe and Stern pic-

Chico News and Review/LNS

ture it. The chain reaction of resistance to nuclear power has spread far beyond U.S. borders. A survey. prepared by a special team of experts 'for the Rockefeller Foundation in New York and The Institute of International Affairs in London concluded that "The almost universal faith and optimism of

earlier years have been superseded by concern, pessimism and not infrequently hostility.”

Some of the fiercest opposition has erupted around plans to build plants in countries such as the Philippines and South Korea. The two countries are both prime customers of U.S. military and industrial hard-

ware. South Korea has launched the most ambitious nuclear program of any country in the Third World with an infusion of more than $1.3 billion in Eximbank funds for construction and fuel. But the two nations also rank among the world's most notorious violators of human rights.

In addition, the plants present enormous problems of their own. In the Philippines, Westinghouse wants to put a plant in the fishing village of Morong, only (continued on page 12).

Come Out and Be Heard

The Federal Communications Commission at a meeting in Washington, D.C. on March 12 ordered broadcasters to listen to all groups that are significant elements within their service areas, including lesbians and gays and the handicapped. Acting on a petition filed in 1977 by the National Gay Task Force and 143 gay organizations from all 50 states, the Commission ruled that broadcasters must listen to the concerns of gay organizations to determine what community needs should be addressed in programing.

The Commission ruled that stations are not obligated to seek out gay or handicapped groups. These or other significant community groups must make themselves known to a broadcaster. Once a broadcaster decides that the gay community, for example, is significant in its service area, the station will be obligated to contact representatives of the gay community in future ascertainment surveys. "Lesbian and gay groups across the country have

Grr..reveuses

ఆ

Paris (Rosette Coryell/LNS)—International Women's Day this year in France was marked by more than the now-traditional demonstration on March 8. A few weeks ago, a feminist group launched an appeal to women to strike on Friday, March 7, everywhere and in every way they could: on the job, at home, and in bed.

Since the word "grevistes"--strikers-applies to both men and women, a new word with a strictly feminine ending was coined for the occasion: greveuses, and the women initiating the movement decided to spell it “grr..reveuses". Grr speaks for itself, and reveines means dreamers: The idea was that an actual general strike of women was only a **dream for the time being. Nobody expected the call for March 7 to result in more than token action.

But even the more optimistic organizers of the "arr..reveuses" were surprised at the response to their call for a general women's strike all over the country. Although few women struck the whole day; a great many found original ways of marking the occasion.

Some strikers distributed leaflets at markets and other public places and were especially gratified to see that their leaflets did not litter the street after.ward, as is so often the case. One elderly woman, after reading the leaflet carefully, exclaimed, "Oh, I see! Tonight I put this on my husband's plate and in bed!"

As required by law, many women, especially civil servants, had given strike notice through their astonished union delegates. Others did not strike the whole day, but stopped work a few hours, ' going around their workplaces to explain their action to fellow workers. Some office workers, usually required to dress neatly, came to work without makeup, or even painted like clowns, in their Sunday jeans, for example. In many offices, male workers could not get a cup of coffee; their female colleagues, whose job often includes brewing a pot, refused to

been given an important tool to use in the effort to improve broadcast coverage of our concerns," commented National Gay Task Force Co-Executive Directors Charles F. Brydon and Lucia Valeska. "We encourage local organizations to take the initiative and contact broadcasters serving their areas, including religious stations. Request that the gay community be made part of that broadcaster's ascertainment procedure. Use the NGTF 'Media Guide to Gay Issues' pamphlet as an education document for broadcasters. And be prepared to offer positive suggestions on the kinds of news stories and programs that will serve the interests of all lesbians and gay men in your community," suggested Brydon and Valeska.

Copies of the "Media Guide to Gay Issues" can be obtained by writing NGTF, 80 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011. The cost per pamphlet is $.10, prepaid.

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make it for them. In company restaurants, women sat at separate tables, kindly asking any male trying to take a still-unoccupied seat please to take his tray elsewhere. Discussions started over lunch often continued late into the afternoon, resulting in an effective work stoppage.

At the headquarters of the "grr..reveuses" in a women's bookstore, the phone rang all day with excited reports of this kind of action going on all over France. So the "grr..revennes" feel they may not be such dreamers after all, and that maybe one day seon, a real call-for a general strike might bring the country to a standstill..

TV Watchers: "Alert!

National Abortion: Rights Action · League · (NARAL) has learned that an hour-long "documen-

roduced by Friends for Life is being circuinted to television stations throughout the country. Evidently, local anti-abortion groups are buying time for this-and possibly for other, equally biased pro-

Since the Federal Communications Commission's Fairness Doctrine stipulates that controversial issues must be portrayed in an even light by TV stations, NARAL may be able to place a pro-choice film on the same stations--but only if we know that an antiabortion piece has been aired.

Please alert Shelley Caro at the NARAL national office if such programs are scheduled for your community. And watch the program. If NARAL or any NARAL official is mentioned by name in a negative context, NARAL has an automatic right to time on the station in question.

—NARAL Newsletter Vol. 12, No. 3

April, 1980/What She Wants/Page 5