The Education Master 1994 (4th Edition)/EDUCATIONS_MASTER_4TH_EDITION.bin/files/educnomy/halleyds/chapter.014

Text File | 1993-05-15 | 34KB | 519 lines

*******************************  CHAPTER XIV  ********************************
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**************************  THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT  **************************


     According to records kept on the last 22 cycles of sunspot activity, the
sunspot peak of 1957/58 is the highest ever recorded.  1957 brought a nuclear
meltdown in England and an accidental nuclear explosion in the Soviet Union
at a time when there were a limited number of nuclear facilities.  Before the
Chernobyl accident, the last graphite reactor to have experienced a fire was
Britian's Windscale reactor, which spewed radiation from its graphite cooled
core on Thursday, October 10, 1957.  The Windscale reactor was a plutonium
producing atomic reactor in northwestern England which had a fire in its Pile
No. 1 which breached the filtering system in the 400 foot high exhaust stack
of its air-cooling system.  This was Britain's main source of plutonium at
the time.  It occurred when one of the two reactors had been shut down for
the whole day and the uranium heat had been oxidized by the surrounding air.
A cloud of radiation was detected as far away as Denmark, as well as in
London.  Following the accident, preparations were made for the total
evacuation of the southern part of Cumberland county but in order to avoid
"unnecessary alarm" news was withheld from the public.  It was kept a secret
until a local newspaper editor heard it from his wife who had heard it from a
grocer who had heard that there was a fire at the plant from a worker.

     In the same year, the nuclear explosion in the Kystym nuclear waste dump
in the Ural Mountains of the Soviet Union occurred in September.  This waste
was material from a plutonium weapons facility near Chelyabinsk.  Since most
uraniumis uranium 238, it has to be enriched to make it weapons grade.  U-235
and U-239 (Plutonium) is of more importance to weapons since it decays more
readily.  The Kystym accident didn't come to the attention of the public in
the West until 1976 when a dissident Soviet biologist named Zhores Medvedev
referred to it in an article on another subject. ("National Geographic" of
April 1989 gives the date as 1958 on page 416.  The First official Soviet
mention of it was in Tass in 1989.)  By many nuclear scientists, it is
believed to have resulted from the storage of uranium contaminated with
transuranic wastes which became too hot and resulted in a self sustaining
chain reaction.  Transuranic wastes are materials which don't occur in nature
and result when uranium gains neutrons -- giving them higher atomic numbers
than uranium.

     The high point of solar activity which occurred in 1979 was coincident
with the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident.  This was the year
when Skylab was knocked from the sky and shortly before the Mt. St. Helens
eruption of 1980.  When the sun was again at a low point in activity, the
Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in the northern reaches of the Ukraines.

     The Kystem nuclear waste dump explosion in the Urals, the Windscale
reactor fire in Britain, the Three Mile Island nuclear incident, and the
Chernobyl accident are the most significant nuclear accidents to date in
nuclear facilities.  All of them coincide with low and high point solar
activity which is also a major factor in volcanic and earthquake activity.

     Studies of thunderstorm activity which were conducted at 108 stations in
the eastern and central United States for the years 1930-1933 and 1942-1965
indicated that the peaks of thunderstorm activity occur two days after a full
moon and during the new moon. ("Journal of Geophysical Research" 75:  519,
1970.)  There was a full moon just two days before the Windscale nuclear
accident of October 10, 1957, and two days before the Chernobyl accident of
April 26, 1986.  The Three Mile Island accident occurred at a new moon when
the moon was on the ecliptic passing close to the sun.  The same thunderstorm
data which determined that there was a peak in lightning activity two days
after a full moon also mentions another peak in activity which occurred during
lunar ecliptic crossings in years of peak solar activity.  I do not know the
exact time or date of the Kystym explosion.

     The tail of the magnetosphere extends well beyond the distance of the
moon's orbit from the earth.  Its shape results from solar plasma blowing the
tail in a direction away from the sun.  The moon is in the region of the tail
for about a four day period each month.  This occurs about two days before a
full moon until about two days after a full moon.

     Cosmic ray particles are particles traveling billions of times more
energetically and faster than they would under normal conditions.  Some
reaching 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 electron volts.  They are so intense
that they are thought to originate from supernova shockwaves and repeated
stellar outbursts throughout the galaxy and from far distant galaxies.  They
are the most energetic particles in the universe and move at nearly the speed
of light.  All of the substances known to man occur in this radiation.  In
spite of their small numbers, cosmic rays make up about half of the energy
found at any one time in interstellar space.  Most consist of charged
particles (ions) and some very few are high energy gamma ray photons.  Cosmic
rays are detected coming from all directions and are thought, by many
cosmologists, to fill space amazingly equally at energy levels above those
produced by the sun. (Since 1930, when Ernest O. Lawrence invented the
cyclotron, particle physicists have largely neglected studying uncontrollable
cosmic radiation.  For their research, they have used atom smashing
cyclotrons instead.)

     It is believed that an extensive Milky Way magnetic field confines and
scatters the particles homogeneously and it is apparent that cosmic ray
electrons interact with the Galaxy's magnetic field, creating synchrotron
radiation.  From this homogeneous cosmic radiation, there appears to be a
marked overabundance of Neon-22.  The homogeneous distribution, though, does
not hold true of the very highest cosmic rays, which are sometimes able to be
associated with certain galactic objects and other galaxies.  The radiation
which is emitted along the plane of the Milky Way acts something like the
solar wind with a full spectrum of emissions.  We receive galactic noise from
the galactic plane which is most evident twice every 24 hours when either
side of the Milky Way crosses overhead.

     Cosmic radiation that consists of extremely penetrating atomic nuclei of
a heterogenous nature, enters the earth's upper atmosphere from outer space
at speeds which approximate the speed of light.  They impinge on the
atmospheric gases and create a complex shower of secondary particles and by
products which include pions, mesons and muons, as well as electrons,
positrons and gamma rays.  These in turn often produce even more secondary
particles and create what is termed a "cascade shower".  During low sunspot
activity, these cosmic rays easily penetrate the earth's atmosphere.  Also,
during cosmic ray particle showers, researchers detect muons that penetrate
to underground detectors.

     When there are more neutrons escaping through the surface of a
fissionable material than are creating new fission reactions, its condition
is known as subcritical.  In some cases, merely by changing the geometry of a
subcritical mass (but usually by increasing its quantity) it can reach
critical mass where a self sustaining chain reaction occurs.  Another way to
induce a chain reaction is by the input of energy, usually in the form of
electromagnetic radiation, thus allowing a subcritical mass to sustain a
chain reaction.  There are always atomic particles from cosmic radiation and
other environmental sources coursing through a subcritical mass.  These cause
atoms to split but, in most cases, the neutrons which are released tend to
escape without creating chain reactions.

     It is from cosmic rays that the charge that produces lightning in the
earth's atmosphere gets most of its energy.  It is, therefore, noteworthy
that at the same time as the Chernobyl meltdown, early on Saturday evening,
a violent thunderstorm struck Kiev.  There was concern amongst visiting
foreigners, who noted it later, over whether they had been exposed to
something more than the rain which fell such as fallout.  While the exact
time of the accident is uncertain, infrared satellite images, which were
taken during the time of the incident, showed a sudden flash in the vicinity
of Kiev which is believed to have been the explosion that shattered the 1,000
megawatt reactor on Saturday, April 26th.  The combustible graphite in the
reactor's core was seen burning from satellite photographs at temperatures of
more than 4,000 degrees F after the explosion.  The Soviets gave the time of
its occurrence as 1:23 A.M. on April 26, 1986.

     Also, the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred rather near the time when
Halley's comet was again closest to the earth and when the earth passed
through the Pi-pupid meteor shower.  One of the things which occur during a
meteor shower is a certain amount of atmospheric ionization.  Meteors consist
of mineral and metallic particles which sometimes create local boosts in
short wave signal strength that last from a few seconds to half a minute.
Halley's passed only 0.42 astronomical units from the earth on April 11, 1986,
and was still quite close on the 26th.  At this time, the comet's dust tail
appeared to fan out due to its close proximity to the earth.  More
significantly, the earth was between the sun and Halley's at the time of the
meltdown.  Halley's was closer than the point it reached during its inward
journey towards the sun and by then had developed a huge plasma tail which
formed a tremendous linear accelerator.  The motion of an electric current
creates a magnetic field.  Thus, Halley's enormous size and magnetic field
would give it the properties of a particle accelerator along its plasma tail.
The faster the charge moves and the larger the charge, the stronger the
magnetic field would be. (It can be thought of as a colossal lightning rod
which stood on the opposite side of the earth in the direction in which the
earth's huge magnetospheric tail was pointing.)

     American nuclear experts thought that the Chernobyl accident must have
begun with a massive loss of coolant in the reactor's core.  An instantaneous
loss of coolant to a reactor core is what is usually considered when a
nuclear accident occurs.  When the reactor core gets too hot, the uranium
fuel melts.  The Soviets tended to emphasize human error but also postulated
"several highly improbable and therefore unforeseen failures" as did the
experts who examined the Three Mile Island incident.  The Soviets also
considered a malfunctioning turbine and an electrical failure.  The
conclusions still appear tentative and the final word has not been reported.
The accident had a devastating effect upon the reform minded leadership in
the Soviet Union when they first tried to cover up the accident.  It meant
that the Soviet Union had to come clean and let the world know what had
happened or lose their newly gained credibility.  It is now generally
recognized as the world's worst nuclear disaster and it has made the Ukraine,
the Soviet Union's second largest republic, an ecological disaster area.

     The Three Mile Island incident is thought to have resulted from a
combination of factors, like improperly set valves, a stuck valve, an errant
sensor, and operator error.  It took several weeks before the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission was forced to admit how dangerous they had felt the
situation at Three Mile Island really was.  Government bureaucracies are hard
pressed to let the general public know just how dangerous these incidents can
be.  Half of the 36,816 fuel rods suffered high heat in the reactor's core
while a huge quantity of highly explosive hydrogen gas had accumulated inside
the reactor's containment structure.  Had this exploded, it could have spread
great quantities of radioactivity throughout the surrounding area.  Along
with this was the very real possibility of a meltdown of the reactor core
which would breach the containment structure.  Radioactive steam leaked into
the surrounding area but the accident could have been far worse.  Metropolitan
Edison predictably responded by strenuously downplaying the seriousness of
the situation.  Most of the major accidents have been blamed on a loss of
cooling materials due to defective technology or operator error, but there is
no hard evidence of whether the defective devices were defective due to
overheating or due to redundant errors as the public is led to believe.

     So much of the discussion of the Chernobyl accident is political, that
it is hard to separate fact from fiction.  As in the cold war, Soviets are
depicted as being more secretive and incompetent by western writers and there
is an audience which is prepared to believe just about anything negative
about their technology.  There is an attempt to put the blame on the type of
reactor which was one of 16 graphite reactors of a similar design in the
Soviet Union.  There has been a rash of finger pointing among the Soviets as
well, but that it was a high altitude facility and in a high latitude may be
more significant than all the other factors combined.

     The _World Almanac: 1993_ lists 14 "Notable Nuclear Accidents" on page
577.

     1.) Oct. 7, 1957 - The Windscale reactor fire.  The actual date of the
     accident was October 10, 1957 according to material on the subject at
     the time.  (See, for instance, "Popular Science", October 1958,
     "World's first atomic alarm" by Hartley Howe)  It involved a fire in
     its Pile No.  1 that breached the filtering system.  The accident
     occurred during the highest sunspot peak ever recorded when there were
     only a few nuclear power plants.  It is considered one of the worst
     nuclear accidents and a cloud of radiation was detected as far away as
     Denmark.  It happened on the second day after a full moon.

     2.) 1957 - The Soviet accident (here it is listed as a chemical
     explosion in storage tanks containing nuclear wastes in Kasli.  It
     is called the Kystem nuclear waste dump "explosion" in most writing
     on the subject which I have encountered.  It is thought to have
     resulted from excessive heat generated by transuranic wastes.)
     The explosion occurred in 1957 during peak solar activity according to
     most writings on the subject (although the April 1989 issue of "National
     Geographic" gives the date as 1958 on page 416, which was also during
     peak solar activity).  The first reference to the accident to appear in
     the West was in an article written by a dissident Soviet biologist name
     Zhores Medvedev who put the event in September of 1957.

     3.) Jan. 3, 1961 - An experimental reactor exploded near Idaho Falls,
     Id. and killed three workers.  The only immediate deaths attributed to
     an American nuclear accident.  This accident occurred during the second
     day after a full moon.

     4.) Oct. 5, 1966 - A sodium cooling system malfunction caused a partial
     meltdown at the Erico Fermi demonstration breeder reactor near Detroit.
     Since the accident was supposed to have resulted from a sodium cooling
     system accident which was non-nuclear in nature and because this was a
     breeder reactor I do not included it in my analysis.

     5.) Jan. 21, 1969 - An experimental underground reactor in Switzerland
     had a coolant malfunction which released radiation into a cavern, which
     was then sealed.  The accident occurred during peak solar activity.

     6.) Nov. 19, 1971 - The water storage space in a reactor in Monticello,
     Minn. filled to capacity and overflowed into the Mississppi.  The
     accident occurred during a new moon.  I am not clear as to whether the
     water boiled over or perhaps radioactive heat in the core switched open
     water cooling valves.

     7.) Mar. 22, 1975 - A technician caused a fire with a lighted candle
     while checking for air leaks at the Brown's Ferry reactor in Decatur,
     Ala.  The accident was not nuclear in nature and it doesn't conform to
     my model.

     8.) Mar. 28, 1979 - The worst nuclear accident in U.S. history occurred
     at the Three Mile Island reactor in Middletown, Pa.  It is considered
     to be the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.  It occurred during
     peak solar activity, during a new moon and when the moon was on the
     ecliptic and passing close to the sun.

     9.) Aug 7, 1979 - There was a release of highly enriched uranium from a
     top secret nuclear fuel plant near Erwin, Tenn.  The release occurred
     during peak solar activity during the day of the full moon.

     10.) Feb. 11, 1981 - Over 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant leaked
     into the containment building at the Sequoyah 1 plant in Tennessee.
     The leak doesn't appear to have been nuclear in nature.

     11.) Apr. 25, 1981 - During repairs on a nuclear power plant at Tsuruga,
     Japan radioactive material was released and exposed about 100 workers.
     This does not appear to have been due to natural causes but rather due
     to human error.

     12.) Jan. 25, 1982 - A small amount of radioactive steam was released
     from the Ginna plant near Rochester, N.Y. when a steam-generator pipe
     broke.  The event occurred during a new moon and near a partial eclipse
     of the sun.

     13.) Jan. 6, 1986 - An improperly heated cylinder of nuclear material
     burst at the Kerr-McGee plant at Gore Oklahoma.  The event occurred
     during a low point in solar activity.

     14.) Apr., 1986 - The Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet Union.
     The Chernobyl accident occurred during a low point in solar activity and
     on the second day after a full moon.

     Using the information given above events 4, 7, 10 and 11 should be
thrown out.  Which leaves the following.

                         second day after            peak or low
       event             full or new moon            solar activity    %
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  + 1.Windscale          second day                  peak              100%
  + 2.Kystem             no data                     peak              n/a
    3.Idaho Falls        second day                  miss              50%
    5.Lucens             miss                        peak              50%
    6.Monticello         new moon                    miss              50%
  + 8.Three Mile Island  new moon                    peak              100%
    9.Erwin              miss (full)                 peak              50%
    12.Rochester         new moon (partial eclipse)  miss              50%
    13.Gore              miss                        low               50%
  + 14.Chernobyl         second day                  low               100%

   + = major event

     Seven out of ten of these events occurred during peak or low point solar
activity.  Six out of nine occurrances involved either the second day after
a full moon or a new moon.  Kystem is not counted in the lunar catagory since
the exact date of the event is unknown.  All major events where data is
available involved both the lunar and solar events.  Of all the events which
obviously involved overheating of the nuclear core, ALL occurred during one
of these events.

     Born of the Manhattan project, nuclear power has seeped into the lives
of people throughout the world.  After Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated,
there were numerous atomic tests conducted throughout the South Pacific and
regions of the western United States.  The U.S. conducted more than 66
atmospheric nuclear explosions between 1945 and 1958 amongst the Marshall
Islands.  Following a 100 million dollar clean-up operation on the Enewetak
Atoll, where 43 nuclear explosions were conducted, the U.S. government sealed
wastes in a cement cover over a bomb crater on Runit Island.  After having
been returned to their island home in 1969, where over 20 atomic tests had
been conducted (the largest hydrogen bomb was tested at Bikini in 1954),
Bikini islanders showed the highest ingestion of plutonium of any population
in the world and were therefore evacuated in 1977.  Many radiation induced
diseases were not conclusively linked in the early years but the islanders
served as guinea pigs in a massive experiment and the results are still
coming in.  Enewetakans were resettled in April 1980 after having lived in
poverty and exile for 30 years.  More recent testing of nuclear weapons by
the French in the islands of French Polynesia managed, on one test, to crack
a coral reef and generate a tidal wave.

     Between January 1951 and August 1963, there were 223 atmospheric tests
conducted in the testing grounds of Nevada.  Dr. Ernest Sternglass, of the
University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine, conducted studies which
indicated a correlation between low Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and
atmospheric atomic testing conducted in the midwest during the 1950's.  Dr.
Sternglass had worked for many years as a research scientist at Westinghouse
Corporation's research laboratory.  There was also a 40 percent rise in the
number of leukemia deaths among Utah children born during the 1951-1958
testing period.  Utah was the area that was most exposed to the fallout from
the tests.

     Each of the known nuclear powers have conducted nuclear tests above and
below the ground.  The larger tests develop fireballs that reach into the
stratosphere but the so-called "tactical" weapons, which create relatively
smaller explosions, tend to develop clouds which reach into the 10,000 to
30,000 foot range of the troposphere.  This merely puts radioactive waste
particles in regions where they collect and fall with rainfall over wide
regions surrounding the blast area.

     Extensive testing is required for nuclear production and each nuclear
power or future nuclear power is obliged to conduct its own tests.  The
development of nuclear weapons by terrorists, other than the super powers,
was demonstrated feasible in 1976 by John Aristotle Phillips while he was
attending Princeton University.  His two foot diameter, cut-rate, 125 pound,
nuclear bomb would be small and inexpensive enough for the up-and-coming
terrorist organization to put together without the help of a friendly
multinational company or government loan.  The key to producing nuclear
weapons is in the availability of fissionable materials.  These, of course,
become more readily available with the processing of uranium for nuclear
reactor fuel.  India managed to create and test a bomb made from waste
plutonium.

     Along with increased weapons production capabilities, that is inherent
within atomic energy production, comes a justification for government spying
and political repression.  In an age of multinational industrial powers,
governments have become largely pawns in a game of worldwide domination and
exploitation.  Whether nuclear power is controlled by governments or by huge
corporations who control those governments, there will be a need for tight
security, which is perhaps a far greater threat than terrorism.  Repression
as a way of life is a cost which must be considered, along with the increased
likelihood of nuclear accidents, and terrorist sabotage, when considering the
development of atomic energy.

     Reactors may have become safer with time but the number of reactors
which have been built since the first accident and the amount of nuclear
waste which has accumulated since that time is considerable.  The U.S. has
ordered no new nuclear facilities since the Three Mile Island incident and
the ones which were ordered after 1973 have been canceled.  But now,
following events in the Middle East, there is a push to produce a new
generation of nuclear power plants.  In France, where the facilities are
state owned and controlled, 75 percent of the electric production is provided
by nuclear power.  Because they are closely regulated by the government there
is a greater attempt at maintaining strict safety standards and the facilities
are of a uniform design.  This means that the builders are able to become
more proficient with repetition and any number of engineers or operators are
readily available to repair or work on 52 of France's 55 nuclear facilities.
Redundancy, though, can also be a double edged sword if design flaws exist.
In the U.S., there are 113 nuclear plants which were designed by a variety of
companies to serve different needs in different locations.  Many were built
by companies who saw cost cutting as their main concern.  Specialists are
required to operate and repair each different system.  From some very obvious
blunders like building the Diablo Canyon reactor in an area of active
faulting and high risk earthquake activity, to building the Shoreham nuclear
facilities on Long Island where there was no way to evacuate its population
in the event of an accident, the nuclear power companies have shown an
utterly amazing lack of sensitivity to basic safety concerns.

     The DOE, along with GE and Westinghouse have spent huge sums of money in
recent years on new atomic reactor designs.  This means that some powerful
interests are prepared to sell the public on the superior quality of these
new products.  Unfortunately, publications which carry articles on nuclear
power and also contain advertising which promotes nuclear energy, by groups
like the Committee for Energy Awareness, are the public's main source of
information on the subject.  These idiot proof reactors sound much like what
was supposed to have been true of the current facilities.

     If heavy metals don't decay at a constant rate, but rather are affected
by intense radiation during solar peak activity or from cosmic radiation
during low points in solar activity, better safeguards which take such events
into account need to be developed.  Private industry has a profit motive in
maintaining their facilities and would fight any type of regulation which had
an adverse effect on their capital gains.  A more enlightened approach would
be strict regulation and government ownership but this probably would not be
popular in America's current conservative political atmosphere.  It would,
though, mean that profits from energy production could be used to pay taxes.
A nuclear accident would be far more costly than preventive measures, but the
costs would be environmental and private industry could not be held
sufficiently accountable to make them maintain absolute safeguards.

     Waste disposal must be seen as the main problem with nuclear energy.
Variations in solar activity or in cosmic radiation are not subject to long
term predictions and this creates some very serious long term risks.  If
nuclear wastes persist for anything approaching the time frames which are
currently postulated, we should be thinking about the effects that they will
have in the environment for the next million years or so.  It might be a lot
different if decisions were in the hands of people who had a strong religious
tradition that supported the idea of reincarnation and karma.  They might be
a lot less inclined to want to spoil their nest.

     Perhaps by now the reader has begun asking the same questions by which I
have been haunted for many years.  The premise on which the nuclear power
plants were designed is the same as that which is used in the design of
nuclear warheads:  that radioactive decay is always a constant of quantum
physics.  This requires a great deal of faith and is quite religious in its
implications.  The questions which should be asked by those with less or a
different faith are, just how are those warheads designed to safeguard
against a surge in nuclear decay?  Are these safeguards sufficient to
counteract a radical surge?  If there are safeguards in one country, do they
also exist in others as well?  Could a surge in radioactive heat explode the
triggering explosives?  The reason that scientists study physics in deep cave
environments is because that is where there is little penetration by cosmic
radiation.

     If earthquake and volcanic activity are sensitive to extraterrestrial
radiation, it suggests that they result from incidences of rapid nuclear
decay or in some type of piezoelectrically induced effect in the earth's
interior.  Nuclear accidents in energy production facilities follow a pattern
which is quite similar to the earthquake and volcanic cycle in sunspot
activity.  The Kystym nuclear waste dump explosion was from weapons grade
high level wastes which aren't as enriched as those which nuclear reactors
produce.  Fuel rods which are used in energy production stay in reactors five
times as long as rods which are used to produce plutonium for weapons.  This
means that they are far more contaminated with transuranic wastes.

     What I find most disturbing about all this is that we are dealing with
unknowns in a very pervasive and dangerous technology.  I suspect that
neutron bombs are simply nuclear bombs exploded in the upper atmosphere which
filters out all but the neutrons.  I couldn't help thinking that this was
what has been the central force in the S.D.I. program.  There always seems to
be a plethora of scientists who claim that nuclear technologies are under
control, but I can't help wondering if they might be wrong.  If they are, and
S.D.I. technology consists of space based nuclear weaponry such as neutron
bombs, or even nuclear reactors, the dangers may be far greater than anyone
cares to think.

     There appears to be periodic astronomical events which strongly
influence earthquake and volcanic activity while affecting the rate of heavy
metal decay.  Planetary conjunctions in the area of the Pleiades and periods
of high and low sunspot activity seem to be involved with geophysical events.
In an age of nuclear weaponry and of nuclear power, it is extremely important
to understand events that trigger nuclear accidents.  Understanding in these
areas could also help with the prediction of devastating earthquake and
volcanic events.  Understandings in high temperature superconductivity may
give insights into the mechanisms involved.  Superconductivity in the earth's
interior may cause sections of the earth's mantle or crust to rise, fall or
be moved with geomagnetic activity.

     Other than the potential dangers from nuclear accidents, there is also
a very real increase in the amount of volcanic activity since the Mt. St.
Helens eruption of 1980.  Volcanologists have observed a worldwide increase
in the amount of volcanic activity since that time.  On May 20, 1990, as the
sun was passing below the Pleiades, the Unzen volcano in Japan began
extruding lava near the summit.  During the new moon on May 24th, the lava
dome partially collapsed sending the first of several hot ash flows down its
flanks.  Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines, erupted shortly afterward as
Mercury passed under the Pleiades.  When the sun will again be nearing peak
activity, in the year 2,000, there will be a conjunction of Jupiter and
Saturn.  This will occur towards the end of May and they will pass the
Pleiades shortly afterward in June.  Mars will have passed that position at
the end of April and Mercury shall pass around May 13.  On May 18, 2000,
there will be a full moon and Venus will pass below the Pleiades in less than
a week.  If this occurrs during high solar activity it would seem far more
significant than events which have resulted in previously observed volcanic
activity that coincided with planets in the vicinity of the Pleiades.

     While the Pleiades are not the only astronomical body which affects
earthquake and volcanic activity, their influence seems significant. They
appear to have a greater influence during peaks in solar activity but other
variables also come into play.  A combination of forces appear to be required
to cause a significant geophysical event.  Deforestation, especially in high
mountain areas, looks to be a factor in the frequency and intensity of
eruptions and quakes.  For this reason, and what has been previously
discussed, forest protection and regeneration seems directly linked with
governmental security and stability.  It appears that we are about to enter
a new era as we go into the next century.  I believe it will not be with
the loss of the great advances of our time but rather that we will enter a
new era of greater insight and enlightenment in which we live in closer
harmony with nature and each other.




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