The following are quotes from Bob Rowen’s My Humboldt Diary: We cannot trust America’s powerbrokers, nor can we rely on our institutions of government that are controlled by them, to protect us from their abuses – My Diary explains why.
I have written My Humboldt Diary: A True Story of Betrayal of the Public Trust as a former nuclear control technician who blew the whistle on the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. (Preface) No one that I’m aware of ever set out to become a whistleblower, leastwise me! But as I became entangled in an ever-expanding web of governmental and corporate corruption at Humboldt Bay, my contempt for PG&E as well as the AEC grew until it literally reached a boiling point at the now legendary May 20, 1970 PG&E company safety meeting at Humboldt Bay. (Preface, and Chapter 10) I had witnessed time and again an incredibly blatant disregard for employee and public safety and numerous cover-ups of radiation safety problems. (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9) I have lived for more than forty years in constant fear of the nuclear power brokers. I have learned from first hand experience what these people are capable of. They are powerful, ruthless, and capable of doing whatever is necessary to protect their interests! (Preface, Chapters 10, 11, and 12) William W. ‘Bill’ Coshow, a northern California attorney, once said to me, ‘I’m surprised you have not met with the same fate as Karen Silkwood.’ Mr. Coshow knew exactly what he was talking about and he clearly understood what I had been living with (Chapter 14), as did Emmy Award winning NBC documentary news producer Don Widener. (Chapter 15) The ramifications of the misuse of nuclear energy; the irresponsible operations of nuclear facility resulting in the poisoning of our air, soil, and water; the lack of meaningful government control over nuclear plant operators; the unresolved problem of nuclear waste disposal; the devastating biological effect of radiation; and the horrendous unimaginable ramification of natural disasters that can befall nuclear plants are far, far too great to allow even one more nuke to be built. My first career as a nuclear control technician, which ended early in my civilian adult life, provided me invaluable lessons that made me a better educator in my second and longer career than anything I could have ever learned in my university studies and the credentialing program. Moreover, however, my Humboldt Bay experience put me in a unique place in time that left me with an even greater responsibility: Sharing My Humboldt Diary with those who are concerned about our future and wanting to make the world a better place than the way we found it. We must never ‘go nuclear.’ There is far too much at stake! (Chapter 17)
