Suffolk Closeup - Plans For Nuclear Power Plants On The Moon And Mars

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County is nuclear-free as a result of the battles to stop the Shoreham nuclear power plant from going into operation and preventing the construction of the many other nuclear power plants the Long Island Lighting Company planned to build here. Indeed, all over the United States there have been opposition to nuclear power plants which has caused their number to be reduced. 

But there’s a look upward for using nuclear power.

There are now plans afoot to put nuclear power plants on the Moon and Mars for would-be colonies. “US Eyes Building Nuclear Power Plants for Moon and Mars,” declared the headline this July of an Associated Press dispatch.  

There’s also work on nuclear propulsion in space. In July, too, the White House National Space Council issued a strategy for space exploration that includes “nuclear propulsion methods.” Nuclear propulsion, its promoters say, would get astronauts to Mars quicker. 

And last week The White House released a “National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power” elaborating on its desire for nuclear power and nuclear propulsion in space.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, has been touting the detonation of nuclear bombs on Mars to, he says, “transform it into an Earth-like planet.”  As Business Insider has reported, Musk “believes it will help warm the planet and make it more hospitable for human life.” The website www.space.com says: “The explosions would vaporize a fair chunk of Mars’ ice caps, liberating enough water vapor and carbon dioxide…to warm up the planet substantially, the idea goes.”   

It’s been projected that it would take more than 10,000 nuclear bombs to carry out the Musk scheme. SpaceX is selling T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Nuke Mars.” Check out SpaceX selling “Nuke Mars” T-shirts online at: https://shop.spacex.com/products/nuke-mars-t-shirt

Musk’s nuclear bomb of choice: hydrogen bombs. The detonations would render Mars radioactive

The nuclear bombs would be carried to Mars 1,000 SpaceX Starships that Musk wants to build—like the one that blew up in a fireball this month. “Fortunately,” reported Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News the next evening, “no one was aboard.” But what if nuclear materials—reactors headed for the Moon or Mars, for example—had been aboard?

The nuclear space issue is one I got into 35 years ago when I learned from reading a U.S. Department of Energy newsletter about two space shuttles to be launched the following year with plutonium aboard. One shuttle was the Challenger. It was to carry up a space probe loaded with 24.2 pounds of plutonium. The plutonium was to be used as fuel in radioisotope thermoelectric generators to provide a few hundred watts of electricity for the space probe’s onboard instruments. The shuttles were to release the probes upon achieving orbit. 

I asked DOE and NASA under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act what would happen if there was an accident on launch or lower or upper atmosphere and what would be the consequences to people in Florida if the plutonium was dispersed in an accident. For 10 months DOE and NASA blocked my receiving information. Finally, after my challenges to this, they sent documents to my post office box here in Suffolk claiming the likelihood of an accident releasing plutonium was “small due to the high reliability inherent in the design of the Space Shuttle.” Then, on January 28, 1986, the Challenger blew up. On its next mission, in May 1986, it was to have aboard the plutonium, the most deadly of all radioactive substances.

And I’ve been pursuing the issue of using nuclear in space ever since authoring two books, one The Wrong Stuff, and writing and presenting three TV documentaries, and penning hundreds of newspaper, magazine and internet articles.

There are safe alternatives to the use of nuclear in space. Said the headline in Universe Today last month, “Solar Power is Best for Mars Colonies.” The extensive piece stated how “a NASA-sponsored MIT think-tank has weighed up the future energy needs of a manned settlement on Mars and arrived at an interesting conclusion…solar arrays might function just as well, if not better, than the nuclear options.” Likewise, solar power is seen as abundant on the Moon. A 2016 Discover magazine piece was headlined “How to Harvest Terawatts of Solar Power on the Moon” and spoke of the Japanese corporation, Shimizu, “gearing up to develop solar power on the moo=

As tor propulsion, there are solar sails. The magazine New Scientist published a comprehensive article in October titled, “The new age of sail,” with a subhead: “We are on the cusp of a new type of space travel that can take us to places no rocket could ever visit.” Japan sent up its Ikaros spacecraft in 2010 using energy emitted from the sun to sail in the vacuum of space. Last year, the LightSail 2 mission of the U.S.-based Planetary Society was launched and is still up in space flying with the sun’s energy. The New Scientist article piece spoke of scientists wanting to use solar sails “to set a course for worlds currently far beyond our reach—namely the planets orbiting our nearest star, Alpha Centauri.”

Solar power has also begun to replace plutonium power on space probes. NASA in 2011 launched its Juno space probe on a mission to Jupiter. It uses three solar arrays instead of nuclear power to generate onboard electricity. Juno is still up there, orbiting and studying far-off Jupiter.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Remembering John J Mullen And LILCO'S Plan For A "Nuclear Power Park"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

 John J. Mullen, a leading wordsmith of the anti-nuclear power movement on Long Island, died last month. Working pro bono with attorney Tom Twomey, who passed away in 2014, Mullen used his great gift at language and brilliance at advertising and direct-mail to challenge the scheme of the Long Island Lighting Company to turn Suffolk County into a “Nuclear Power Park.”

Yes, “Nuclear Power Park.” Mr. Twomey obtained—and Mr. Mullen brought to public attention—a four-inch-thick “Nuclear Power Park Report” put together by LILCO. 

Nuclear power plants would be built throughout Suffolk under LILCO’s plan to become a major distributor of nuclear-generated electricity on the U.S. East Coast—with the people of the county undergoing the enormous risks of having the counterparts of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plants here.

Four nuclear power plants would be built along the Long Island Sound in Jamesport. It was during the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearings on the LILCO Jamesport project that Mr. Twomey secured the “Nuclear Power Park Report.”

And, three nuclear power plants were supposed to rise 30 miles to the west of Jamesport, at Shoreham. The first, what was referred to in NRC licensing proceeding papers, as Shoreham Nuclear Power Station 1, was completed and underwent problem-plagued low-power testing. It was stopped from going into commercial operation by opposition at the grassroots and by Suffolk and New York State governments. It now sits, a cement hulk, its nuclear innards removed, with its demolition deemed too expensive by the Long Island Power Authority, to which LILCO turned it over for a nominal $1.  There would be no Shoreham Nuclear Power Stations 2 and 3 nor were there to be any of the other nuclear plants LILCO planned elsewhere in Suffolk.

Mr. Mullen had been advertising director of the Long Island Traveler-Watchman in Mattituck when the big nuclear power push and resulting strong resistance —a veritable energy “Battle of Long Island”—was erupting. He would later work for other newspapers in Suffolk. 

Newspapering was in John’s family. His father, also John J. Mullen, was circulation director and a board member of Newsday. The elder Mr. Mullen, John would recount, was the “right-hand man” to Alicia Patterson, the daughter of the founder of the New York Daily News, as she struck out on her own to found and run on Long Island her own newspaper, Newsday. The Mullens lived, and John grew up, in Garden City, where Newsday was long published. 

Indeed, part of Mr. Mullen’s strategy in challenging nuclear power on Long Island was to put together a broadsheet newspaper, New York State Against Jamesport, on which he is listed as Publishing Director and Editor In Chief. 

John utilized a blunt “in-your-face” approach to taking on LILCO and its nuclear power scheme. For example, in an old yellowed copy I have kept of New York State Against Jamesport, there is a half-page declaration that John wrote titled: “TO THE SHAREOWNERS OF LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY, SHOULD YOU SELL NOW?”

 It began by speaking of the big nuclear push by LILCO, “the possibility of 20 nuclear power plants.” And, the LILCO shareowners were advised, “LILCO’s ambitious nuclear program could represent a bad investment for the company and a financial loss for its shareowners. There is growing resistance to nuclear power plants not only with the public but in financial institutions and shareowners.” And it went on with critical information.

John met the love of his life, Mary Ann McCaffrey, in 1979. Together, they would move to Manhattan and John would work at Oglivy & Mather where he was an executive in its direct response division. But they returned to Suffolk in 1984 establishing Mullen & McCaffrey, which since 1984 has been a crackerjack agency doing direct mail, fundraising, advertising and PR for a wide range of clients here especially environmental organizations. 

“Johnny is dead at 73 which is too soon, but he is kept alive for me by all the family and friends who are sharing their Johnny stories with me,” Mary Ann wrote after Mr. Mullen’s death.  “He told the truth—sometimes offending people—but was always forgiving and loving, and caring.” 

John Mullen of East Hampton was a Suffolk environmentalist of whom we should all be proud and indebted to for his superb work in preventing Suffolk from becoming a “Nuclear Power Park,” and, on the positive side, along with Mary Ann assisting so many good groups and people here.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Suffolk Closeup - Finally Election Results Are In

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Finally, the results are in. It turned out to be an Election Month, not the normal Election Day with a night on which results are available. But the COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc in all human activities. In Suffolk like all over the United States, it took weeks to count the absentee ballots mailed in or dropped off by voters who didn’t want to go in-person to polling places on Election Day. 

Still, weeks later, an analysis of the finally final results in Suffolk provides messages. There was no “blue wave” here—a landslide that Democrats hoped for. Still, nationally, Donald Trump’s loss in the popular vote was significant. In Suffolk, his margin was 232 votes. It was 381,021 for Joe Biden for president and 381,253 for incumbent Trump, basically a tie here.  “A huge difference,” commented Southampton Town Democratic Chairman Gordon Herr, “from 2016 when he led by 50,000 votes” in Suffolk.

Did that impact the votes of others running on the Democratic line in Suffolk?

You wouldn’t know that from returns for the four State Senate seats—all won by Republicans. Winners (newcomers first) were: in the lst Senatorial District, Anthony Palumbo of New Suffolk; in the 2^nd Mario Mattera of St. James; in the 3^rd Alexis Weik of Sayville; and then re-elected in the 4^th, Phil Boyle of Bay Shore. 

With the victories of the four, Suffolk Republican Chairman Jesse Garcia declared, the Suffolk delegation “comprises 20% of the State Senate GOP Conference.” 

The biggest surprise in the State Senate contests was Ms. Weik’s win over Democratic incumbent Monica Martinez of Brentwood, a former teacher, assistant school principal and for five years a member of the Suffolk Legislature. With her election in 2018, Ms. Martinez became the first woman from Suffolk to ever have become a member of the State Senate. Now Ms. Weik, who has been Islip Town receiver of taxes, becomes the second. 

The loss in the 1st Congressional District of Democrat Nancy Goroff of Stony Brook against three-term Republican incumbent Lee Zeldin of Shirley—there were 205,715 votes for Mr. Zeldin and 169,294 for Dr. Goroff—casts questions about that race. 

The central theme of Dr. Goroff, a chemistry professor at Stony Brook University on leave as chair of its Chemistry Department, was her being a scientist. Her campaign literature and posters heralded the word scientist—as in Vote for Scientist Nancy Goroff. Science is extremely important, critical on the climate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic. 

She got the nomination by narrowly winning a Democratic primary over Perry Gershon of East Hampton and Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming of Noyac. 

Mr. Gershon had run against Mr. Zeldin two years ago and came close. He received 127,991 votes against 139,027 for Mr. Zeldin, 47% of the vote compared to 51.5% for Mr. Zeldin. Dr. Goroff this year received 45.1% and Mr. Zeldin upped his vote percentage to 54.9% 

Upon losing in 2018, Mr. Gershon’s embarked on a strategy that worked well in the lst C.D. in the past. Otis Pike of Riverhead never stopped running after he lost to incumbent Stuyvesant Wainright of Wainscott back in 1958. For two years, he went to numerous civic and community group events in the district aiming to get people to know him. And in 1960 Mr. Pike defeated four-term GOP incumbent Wainright, and held the position for 18 years, longer than anyone since the lst C.D. seat was established in 1789.

Mr. Gershon had been working hard to pull “another Otis Pike”—but then came the primary this June. In the three-way contest, he was edged out after months of meeting people and holding a series of town meetings in the district. Would it have been more effective for Democrats to go with Mr. Gershon and his face-to-face, personal strategy?

Ms. Fleming also could have been a strong candidate. Elected to the Suffolk Legislature in 2015 after five years as a Southampton Town Board member, she is known in a good portion of the lst C.D. And her background includes being an assistant DA in Manhattan, a member of the DA’s Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit and chief of its unit focusing on fraud in public programs. 

There was an outcome in a race for Southampton Town justice that ran against the grain of what’s become conventional political strategy in Suffolk. Karen M. Sartain of Westhampton, appointed this year to fill a vacant judgeship, won her first election running on just the Democratic line. She beat GOPer Patrick J. Gunn who ran on the Republican, Conservative, Working Families and Independence Party lines. A political belief in Suffolk for decades has been that it’s critical in winning for a major party candidate to also have minor party lines.  Ms. Sartain showed this is not always true.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Visit Theater Three's Website For 'A Carol For This Christmas" Reviewed By Jeb Ladouceur

Theater Review - A Carol for This Christmas

Produced by - Theatre Three, Port Jefferson

Reviewed by - Jeb Ladouceur

 

It has been famously said that “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Today, the observation is eerily true of legitimate theater arts as practiced throughout most of the world. Consider the effect of Bubonic Plague on arguably the most historically famous of all acting companies (Shakespeare’s renowned ‘King’s Men’) and their equally celebrated home base (London’s legendary Globe Theatre). Now compare the Elizabethan thespians’ plight with that of Port Jefferson’s Theatre Three and its dozens of Players and Staff.

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More than 400 years ago, like Theatre Three, one of the first businesses to close when a wave of the plague appeared in London was the theatre. After the Globe Theatre shut its doors in the Bubonic-ravaged summer of 1603, young playwright William Shakespeare fled the city to live for months in his rural hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Fortunately, the move proved prescient, and The Bard not only survived, but in the course of the ensuing few years he went on to write his greatest tragedies … and see them performed at the reopened Globe.

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It is unimaginable that in the spring of this year Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Victorian drama scholar, Jeffrey Sanzel (Theatre Three’s Executive Artistic Director) would have failed to note the chilling parallel between his own misfortunes and those of Shakespeare in 1603.

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In 2020, however, there is no place to hide … the pandemic is truly worldwide, thus geographically inescapable. Accordingly, Maestro Sanzel, true to the mantra that “The show must go on,” has turned his considerable talents, and those of nine members of his cast and crew, to a virtual performance of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ the beloved play which has been staged at Theatre Three for some 36 years. Theater lovers are the beneficiaries of Jeffrey Sanzel’s insistent resolve.

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Those of us who have seen the evolving versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’ over the years will immediately recognize the six actors who take the stage in this somewhat altered production for an unforgettably altered season. Only Michelle LaBozzetta, (who plays the Seeker of Mercy and seven other roles quite handily), veteran Linda May debuting in ACC, and Andrew Lenahan (expert in his riveting portrayals of dead Marley, and the Ghost of Christmas Present) might be considered relative newcomers to ‘A Christmas Carol.’ 

That Theatre Three is able to defy all odds and bring this most memorable of seasonal classics to its audience in indelibly recognizable form (the change in genres notwithstanding) is attributable to several factors. Primary among them are: The obvious versatility of such expert thespians as quick study   Linda May (in the roles of Christmas Past, Mrs. Cratchit, and four other parts) … Douglas Quattrock (he literally owns the essential Bob Cratchit character, having played it to live audiences 900 times) … Steven Uihlein (who embellishes his portrayal of Christmas Future with exquisite Lighting Design).

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And then there is the redoubtable Jeffrey Sanzel. By adding a touch of understatement to his usual interpretation of Ebenezer Scrooge, he tips off the underlying vulnerability of the recalcitrant old miser. It is the perfect accommodation required by the new film medium. Accordingly, Sanzel’s close-ups acquire an irony that would have been impossible to convey minus the dry underestimation.

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Is it any wonder that many in the theater community doff their caps (or curtsy) when passing Port Jefferson’s Theatre Three. The 160-year-old playhouse is, after all, the venue that houses the man often referred to as the reincarnation of the venerable Bard of Avon himself.

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A Carol for This Christmas is Theatre Three’s gift to the Long Island community, and is available for complimentary viewing at the Theatre Three website: https://theatrethree.com/

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Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen published novels. His theater reviews appear in a number of Long Island weekly newspapers and online publications. Ladouceur’s website is Jebsbooks.com.

 

Suffolk Closeup - Expect Fewer Minor Parties Next Time You Vote

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

There will likely be a new ballot line landscape in Suffolk County and the rest of New York State as a result of last month’s election: the elimination of several minor parties that have for many years all but automatically gained ballot presence.

There is litigation pending in federal court to overturn this. But legal experts we’ve spoken to say the litigation—brought by the Libertarian and Green Parties—is unlikely to succeed. And if it doesn’t, they and the Independence Party will lose automatic ballot presence. They can get back on the ballot through a petition process, but this is difficult, especially on a statewide basis.

The cause for the change: new ballot access rules passed by the New York State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo. He has been reported to have been a key force behind the new rules.

For decades, minor parties in New York State needed 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial race held every four years to maintain automatic ballot access. But the new rules require minor parties to each secure either 130,000 votes or two percent of the votes cast every two years in the races for governor or president.

In last month’s election only the Conservative Party and Working Families Party got enough votes to meet this threshold.

What has happened has special impact for Suffolk County. The Independence Party has many members, especially here, although there are those in politics who believe it is because some people think enrolling in it signifies their being independent, not a member of a party. There are 46,437 enrolled members of the Independence Party in Suffolk, well-outnumbering enrollees here in the Conservative Party (22,279) and Working Families Party (4,176).  And there is a strong hold by Suffolk figures on the leadership of the Independence Party, founded in 1991. The state Independence Party chairperson since 2000 has been Frank MacKay of Rocky Point, who is also Suffolk Independence Party leader. He was preceded as state Independence Party chairperson by Jack Essenberg of Miller Place, who was also its Suffolk leader.  

Also, the only public official on the state level who is an Independence Party member is from Suffolk: Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. of Sag Harbor. He’s also Independence Party chairperson of Southampton Town. However, he caucuses and runs with Democratic Party cross-endorsement. So, if there is no Independence line, the next time Mr. Thiele is up for election, in 2022, he can run on the Democratic ticket. 

The litigation which challenges the new rules on the basis of constitutionality was brought in July in U.S. District Court-Southern District in Manhattan.

Governor Cuomo has been reported to have pushed for the new rules because of his friction through the years with the Working Families Party, which is to the left of his centrist stance within the Democratic Party. He denies this. In any event, if his aim was bumping the Working Families Party off the New York ballot, it didn’t work. It survived the new rules.

Also, as a result of last month’s election, there’ll likely be litigation, affecting Suffolk only, involving the wording and legality of what was titled Proposition 2 on the ballot here. 

It was a vote on allowing $44 million to be transferred from the county’s Sewer Stabilization Reserve Fund to a Taxpayer Trust Fund that can be tapped to finance general county operations. And, it would allow the county to not have to pay back $145 million it took earlier from the sewer fund for county operations. That transfer was contested in a successful earlier lawsuit brought by the Long Island Pine Barrens Society in state Supreme Court.

The sewer fund is not only structured to stabilize sewer taxes but can be utilized to fund septic upgrades. It’s part of the county’s Drinking Water Protection Program created by voters in a 1987 referendum. It also provides money for land preservation and water quality. It is funded by a quarter cent of every dollar collected through the Suffolk sales tax. 

“The county is trying to raid your Drinking Water Protection Fund again,” charged the Pine Barrens Society in the weeks leading up to the election. It urged a “no” vote. “They’ve carefully worded the proposition in a way that disguises what they are actually doing,” it declared.    

Proposition 2, which received a narrow majority vote—348,357 to 301,407—was advanced and promoted by Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone amidst county government being in big financial trouble. Suffolk County government, according to a report by its COVID-19 Fiscal Impact Task Force, is facing a $1.5 billion economic shortfall between this year and 2022. This could be moderated if it receives significant federal aid. The wording of Proposition 2 was indeed problematic asking voters to approve “A Charter Law to Transfer Excess Funds in the Sewer Assessment Stabilization Fund…” Seeing that word “Excess,” did voters know exactly what they were voting on?

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.