So much going on in the world of atomic energy. Japan might not exist after their problems are all said and done; it’s the second time they’ve been introduced to problems with that form of energy. Even with their skill and caution in building physical nuclear plants they could not could have predicted or prepared for the awful energy that visited and damaged them in the tsunami. Yesterday I attended another session of “Conversations at BSC” where the topic was “North Dakota - the world’s third largest nuclear power.” President of the college Dr. Skogen, a participant yesterday, spent his military career with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The picture he drew of nuclear weapons makes one shudder. North Dakota has deactivated half of their missiles, those in the Grand Forks Air Force base region, but hose in the Minot region still can be fired off, all 150 of them. They’ve been deactivated in the Grand Forks region except for one, that is. One site has been preserved at Cooperstown as a museum of the cold war and is maintained by North Dakota Heritage Society. I believe a short day trip in this period of high gas prices will be appropriate this summer, so we’ll drive over there one day. It is said to be very well maintained and informative.
Last week’s session of “World War II Memories” at the Learning Institute featured a guest speaker who handles North Dakota’s Homeland Security office. He outlined how easy and prevalent the threat of terrorism is up to and including atomic weapons.
We finished the final class of the Institute’s poetry offering. I hate to see it finished, but now I’m fired up about writing again. The local management of the Institute is very open to suggestions for new offerings, so with my mind hungry for new material I suggested introduction to photography and introduction to good books. She seemed interested in those topics so maybe next session …
