Submitted by Lenny Sueper, May 24, 2007 00:41

I have never lived in Russia but I have been an engineer in the nuclear power for almost 25 years. I'm quite informed about the design of the Chernobyl reactors and the accident. That's MY job. Chernobyl was indeed a very poorly restructured military installation. Graphite moderated reactors such as the RMBK reactor at Chernobyl were originally designed to produce plutonium for warheads. All of the plutonium ever produced for warheads worldwide was generated by graphite moderated reactors. Trying to adapt graphite-moderated reactors to generate electricity has been a design dead end and unsuccessful experiment, as the English also found out with their MAGNOX reactors. Russian science is very good but Russian engineering and administration are different matters. Other countries don't try to build knock offs of Russian automobiles or emulate their management structures. Chernobyl was a mistake of operators but also of reactor design. All reactors in the west have full containments and are required to be inherently stable under all operating conditions. Not so the RMBK design. Most corn and soybeans grown in the United States are genetically modified. The Bt scare over Monarch butterflies that Greenpeace helped fan fears over has been demonstrated to be much to do about nothing. Nobel Prize winner Normal Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution", is very much in favor of genetically modified crops. Definitely, Greenpeace exaggerates a lot and are very dishonest in what they're doing IMO. Not gonna say that about Patrick Moore. Please, check the facts. Cheers, Lenny

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