The Hightower Report

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1,001 Uses for Nuclear Waste

If you have lemons, make lemonade, right?

It's good to know that this kind of can-do, entrepreneurial thinking has risen to the top ranks of government and industry. As recently reported by Mother Jones magazine, the heavy thinkers at East Tennessee Technology Park realized that the lemons on their sprawling facility would make some mighty zesty lemonade, so they've quietly begun the process to start squeezing and selling their product.

They have to be quiet about it because instead of lemons, what they actually have is radioactive scrap metal. This "technology park" used to go by another name: the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons facility. It enriched uranium for America's nuclear bombs, and now it has tons of contaminated metal on its grounds.

What to do with this radioactive waste? Until now, regulators have required the corporate operators of Oak Ridge and other nuclear facilities to dispose of it. But, our industry-friendly Bush administration has come up with the bright idea of turning tons of this stuff into a moneymaker. How? By selling what they call "slightly radioactive" scrap metal to recyclers who can then resell it to manufacturers of consumer products.

But wait ... doesn't this mean that things like baby strollers, frying pans, bicycles, recliners, jewelry, and whatnot could contain radioactive material? Yes. Well, gosh, say those pushing this scheme, that's correct, but -- ha, ha, -- you can trust us because we're rewriting the rules to declare that low levels of irradiated metals are "safe."

Well, are they? No. Scientists say that any dose of radiation, no matter how small, is a risk to public health. To keep you from worrying, however, the Bushites have a simple plan: They won't require any labeling of products made from recycled nuclear metals. Out of sight, out of mind!

If they strike you as being out of their minds, call Public Citizen: 202/588-1000.

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In Golf as in Life

Let's turn to the sports desk for another report from the Wide, Wide, Wide, WILD World of Sports.

Today's feature: Executive golfing. It's well known that CEOs are big on golf, and why not? The game fits them perfectly, for they get someone else to tote their clubs for them, "winners" are determined by how much money they make, and -- best of all -- they get to keep their own score!

Among serious golfers, this last factor is a point of great personal honor, for an honest scorecard is the center of the game's ethical grounding. In today's CEO world, however -- hey, ethics is for losers! In a recent survey reported in USA Today, 82% of top corporate executives confess to cheating at the game. Of course, big shots never consider their actions to be cheating -- they simply "make adjustments" as they play. Adjustments like not counting a missed 3-foot putt as a miss on their scorecard, kicking their ball out of the rough into the fairway, kicking their opponent's ball into a sand trap, stepping on an opponent's ball, and even pouring beer on an opponent's ball to make it sticky.

Even though they admit to these "adjustments," 99% of the executives said they are honest at golf ... and 99% also claimed to be honest at business. An organizational psychologist who works with CEOs says that executive liars often can't even see that they are lying: "They lose the ability to distinguish what is honest and what is not," he says, adding that "Lies are getting bigger and bigger. We're seeing this played out everywhere now, from Tyco to Enron."

A corporate consultant who plays golf with many CEOs says that during one round a CEO was playing poorly ... and deliberately drove the golf cart over the consultant's ball! "They're used to having things their way," the consultant says. "He who makes the gold makes the rules."

And that's the problem, whether on the golf course or up in the executive suites.

Jim Hightower is a speaker and author. To subscribe to his monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown, call toll free 866/271-4900. To order his books or schedule him for a speech, visit www.jimhightower.com.