FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1957

Windsor threatened
by contamination
from U.S. A-reactor

WINDSOR

Canadian families in the Wéindsor-Amherstburg-
LaSalle district are soon to live in an ‘‘atomic hazard’
area, brought about by the construction of an atomic
reactor just across the border at Monroe, Mich. Atomic
reactors, like nuclear bombs, give off deadly Strontium 90

as a by-product.

In Washington, officials of
the United Auto Workers union
are insisting that U.S. author-
ities guarantee adequate safe-
guards at the U.S. plant now
under construction.

Evidence at a public hear-
ing in Washington is that “that
portion of Canada immediate-
ly across from Lake Erie” is
the area of “greatest hazard”
from southerly radioactive
winds. It will be in a more
dangerous area than Detroit.

(A US. Atomic Energy
Commission report released on
January 30 admitted that a
wide belt in the choice dairy
area of the U.S. is contamin-
ated with Strontium-90, which

appears in detectable quan--

tities in the milk.)

The UAW Guardian of Jan-
uary 30 reveals what it term-
ed a “sensational admission
(which) appeared in unpubli-
cized reports given in Wash-
ington this month.”

The union journal then pro-
vides these details:

No newspaper in the USS.
or Canada carried the amaz-
ing report compiled by E.
Wendell Hewson, professor of
meteorology at University of
Michigan, who testified on be-
half of the private companies
pressing for early construc-
tion of the -40 milfion atomic
reactor station.

Leo Goodman, UAW repre-
sentative in Washington, in-
formed the UAW Guardian:

“This report has never been
given any publicity.

“It is sensational —
speaks for itself.”

Well out of the public’s eye,
circled by a high fence and
hidden in woods near Monroe,
Mich., the Public Reactor De-
velopment Company is now
constructing an atomic reactor
of untested design.

Armed with data from scien-
tists, UAW president Walter

and

Reuther has asked for a “go
slow” policy, pointing out:

“For people in Detroit, Tol-
edo and the many surrounding
communities, it could be like
having an A-bomb planted in
the backyard.”

Nobody, not even Detroit
Edison or the AEC can guar-
antee the Monroe station isn’t
like having an A-bomb on the
area’s doorstep.

And nobody took note of the
fact that the Ambherstburg-
Windsor area is at least part
of the front lawn.

Detroit-Edison officials pro-
duced stacks of evidence to
minimize the UAW’s fears, ex-
pressed on behalf of close to
two million Detroit-area resi-
dents,

Part of Detroit-Edison’s “de-
fense” is Prof. Hewson’s re-
port.

In his conclusions, Hewson
said:

“The projected plant to be
located on the west shore of
Lake Erie, near Monroe, pre-
sents the greatest hazard to
the nearby beaches and to that
portion of Canada immediate-
ly across Lake Erie. .. .”

(Amherstburg is across from
Monroe.)

The report continued:

“The Canadian shore may be
affected by south-west and
west-south-west winds during
the spring and summer when
large inversions may persist
throughout day and night... .”

In reciting the history of
wind direction over Monroe,
Hewson pointed out the dan-
ger of radioactive substance
being windborne in Detroit’s
direction is greatly limited be-
cause strong southerly winds
are unusual.

But southwesterly winds,
following the professor’s logic,
would bring Windsor into the
line of hazard.

The Japanese have bitter memories of the H -tests at Bikini.

Japan sends protest to Britain
against Christmas Island tests

TOKYO

Alarmed by the possible consequences of Britain’s nuclear bomb tests at Christmas
Islands, in the Pacific, Japan has appealed to the British government to suspend the tests.

The Japanese government,aware of the results of the U.S. explosion at Bikini atoll in

1954, believes that food and fish will be contaminated by the British experiments.
(The British Foreign Office said the note received last week was being studied.)

The Japanese protest cam-
paign against the tests is rap-
idly increasing; but despite
this, full-scale rehearsals for

the explosion of Britain’s first
hydrogen bomb are scheduled
to begin in a few days.

The rehearsals will be in

Appointment of Speidel
called insult to dead’

WARSAW

Appointment of . General
Speidel as commander of
NATO forces in Central Eur-
ope is an insult to those who
died at the hands of fascism”
and a “threat to world
peace.” :

This statement was made
by M. Leroy, French secretary
of the International Federa-
tion of Resistance Movement
Fighters, at a meeting held in
Oswiecim . (Auschwitz) ' con-
centration camp on the oc-
casion of the 12th anniver-
sary of the camp’s liberation
in January 1945. ‘

More than

four million

people were murdered in the ;

camp which is now a mu-

seum.

Among the exhibits is a
great mass of human hair that
was taken by the Nazis from
dead victims to be woven
into a course cloth, and some
cloth actually woven from
the hair.

Leroy recalled how a Ger-
man woman prisoner helped
a French woman save a baby
born in the camp by wrap-
ping it in a bundle of rags.
In the rags the baby was
smuggled out of the camp.

“Today,” said Leroy, “that
baby is a young man living
in Western France. I shudder
to think that tomorrow he
may be a soldier having to
fight under General Speidel.”

South Australia, where pilots
and navigators from the RAF
jet bomber 76 Squadron were
to arrive this week.

Two-thirds of the force will
be men who took part in the
atomic trials at Montebello
and Maralinga last year,

About 2,000 university stu-
dents paraded through the
streets of Tokyo last week
carrying placards protesting
against the tests.

They went to the British
embassy and handed in letters

describing the tests as another

step in the direction of armed
blocs and declaring them detri-
mental to world peace.’

At a second rally, the stud-
ents protested against any Am-
erican move to establish atomic
weapons bases in Japan.

Fishermen and all other
traffic have been warned to
keep out of a danger area of
400,000 square miles between
March end August.

Sir Anthony Eden ¢elaimed
last June that the explosions
would be high air bursts which
would not involve a heavy
fall-out. .

FEBRUARY 8, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 16

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