Nuke Plant Operator Hates Bush

Yeah I know. Let the Homer Simpson jokes commence. Not. It appears that a nuclear plant operator sent threatening letters to a country club where Bush was sent to appear. The letters contained some kind of powder. It seems the guy was also a part time lawyer.

Two Republican congressmen saw President Bush’s visit to Northern California as an opportunity to raise money for their campaigns. The FBI, however saw an opportunity to catch a man they’ve been after for years.

Michael Lee Braun of Elk Grove has been a target of the FBI for the past five years. Now he sits in jail on no bail.

On Monday he was charged in federal court with sending two threatening letters to the Serrano Country Club where Bush was scheduled to appear at a fundraiser for Rep. John Doolittle.

Braun is a 51-year-old nuclear engineer at Rancho Seco and also works as a part-time lawyer.

FBI agents say for the last five years they’ve suspected him of sending more than 50 threatening letters to Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Most of the letters, including the two sent to the country club, contained a white powdery substance. Some of the letters also contained words such as "poison" or "death powder" and a swastika.

And there are people out there who still think nuclear power is safe. The weak link is always the human element.

It is not that you can't have crazy people running coal fired plants. You can. What coal fired plants can't do is deliver huge pulses of energy even with total malfunction of the safety systems and intent. A qualified reactor operator would know how to disable the reactor safety systems.