GOING CRITICAL: THE ASTROLOGY OF NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS

Brian Lee

There is a certain type of astrologer with a rather vulture-like interest in tragedies and such,
who is forever looking for natural and man-made disasters such as earthquakes, plane
crashes and bombs. The sort of stuff that newspapers are full of because that’s what sells.
Well as one wag said “One way to get in the papers if you’re not famous is to die in large
numbers.”

Now I don’t normally go in for that kind of astrology for a number of reasons. Firstly, as a good
post-Jungian natal astrologer I’m not that interested in events. For me when I’m working with a
client, the inner reality is what I’m pitching for. The point is to empower the client to be their
best and deal with whatever they have to deal with. It’s not for me to go on about things that
“are going to happen to them” and all they have to do is wait passively for fate. Secondly, I’m
not even all that sure that knowing about a coming event is going to help much, even if anyone
actually believes you. And finally, all that focusing on bad news and disasters can’t really be
good for one, now can it? I mean energy does follow thought, doesn’t it?

So having said all that, you appreciate that I’m not one to dive for the ephemeris every time
there’s bad news. But there’s something about nuclear disasters that has my attention. It was
that incident in Tokaimura, Japan September 1999 that got me on the case again. The chart
was text-book stuff. Pluto rising exactly opposite a setting Moon. Tokaimura is a group of 15
nuclear facilities near the town of Tokai, about 90 miles northeast of Tokyo.

Three guys in the reprocessing plant were dissolving enriched uranium in nitric acid (makes
your job seem boring doesn’t it). They’re in a hurry so they dissolve 16kg instead of the usual
2.3kg. What happened was an uncontrolled chain reaction, something that could lead to a
nuclear explosion if it isn’t stopped. This time it was stopped but not until 21 people had been
exposed to high doses of radiation. The incident, described as the worst nuclear accident so
far in Japan, prompted the Japanese Prime Minister to cancel a cabinet reshuffle planned for
that afternoon.

The last time an uncontrolled nuclear reaction had taken place was the accident at Chernobyl
in the Ukraine in 1986 which happened during a test on the pumps that send the coolant into
the reactor core. Two explosions occurred which lifted the cap of the nuclear pile allowing air
in and leading to a reactor fire. Some 8 of the 140 tonnes of nuclear fuel containing plutonium
and other highly radioactive materials were blown out of the reactor. In addition, radioactive
caesium and iodine (both of which accumulate in the human food chain) were released by the
explosion and the subsequent fire. Thirty one people died as a direct result of the accident and
because of fall out 20 percent of the agricultural land of Belarus will remain unusable for at
least a hundred years.

From the chart of the Chernobyl accident, the thing that jumps out is the exact opposition
between the Sun and Pluto. In addition the Sun is pretty close to the Moon’s North node
(adding a long term karmic quality) and retrograde Uranus is rising (adding a shot of
unpredictability). The similarity between the charts of the two events was obvious. In both
cases, Pluto was in almost exact opposition to one of the lights (Sun or Moon). This prompted
me to check out other nuclear accidents to see what data was available and the Internet
provided me with a list. Not all the incidents were so dramatic or newsworthy as Tokaimura or
Chernobyl, not all involved criticality, but their sheer number was scary.

One of the more well known was the accident at Three Mile Island just outside Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania in March 1979. Due to a problem with the primary coolant system and a
misinterpretation of the instrument readings, the temperature inside the reactor increased
uncontrollably leading to a partial meltdown of the core. Radioactive gases were released into
the atmosphere but fortunately no caesium or iodine. Miraculously, despite the severity of the
accident, no direct injuries due to radiation occurred. The chart we are using for the accident
is not the chart for four in the morning when the problem began but for 07:24 when the station
manager declared a general emergency, that is “an incident which has the potential for

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serious radiological consequences to the health and safety of the general public”. The chart
shows a similar pattern: a New Moon rising in opposition to Pluto setting. The valve
malfunction which triggered the accident took place as retrograde Uranus passed over the
midheaven at 04:00.

Closer to home, the fire in the reactor in Windscale, Cumbria (now known as Sellafield) in
October 1957 happened in the days when nuclear power was in its infancy. Windscale wasn’t
in fact a power station but a factory for the production of weapons grade plutonium (the stuff
that goes in nuclear warheads). A major fire occurred after the failure of attempts to reduce
energy which had built up in the reactor. At first fans were switched on to try to cool down the
pile, but they acted like bellows making the fire worse, then carbon dioxide was pumped in
with the aim of suffocating the fire but instead the temperature soared to over 1000 degrees
Centigrade. The engineers knew the only way left to bring the fire under control was by
flooding the pile with water, something which carried the risk of causing a nuclear explosion.
After much debate they decided they had no other choice. Fortunately it worked. They brought
the fire under control but not until the wind had blown a radioactive cloud inland over Britain
while more fall-out landed on Ireland. About 2 million litres of milk had to be poured away.

The timing for this incident is less exact, the malfunction having started on 7th October but the
major fire didn’t start until the afternoon of 10th October. The chart is less conclusive and does
not follow the pattern of the other accidents examined here. There is no hard angle between
Pluto and the Sun or Moon.

Pluto’s complicity in nuclear events is also shown by the chart of the first ever controlled
nuclear reaction on 2nd December 1942 at the University of Chicago, the so called Chicago
Pile 1. Here not only was Pluto in an easy angle to the Sun (trine) but there was also a nice
limiting opposition from Saturn to the Sun to stop things getting out of hand.

The astrological data from these accidents seem to reinforce the impression of Pluto as bad
guy. Well nowadays there’s really no good or bad in astrology, it’s how you handle a situation
and what you get out of it. Pluto’s realm is the underworld, the hidden, the secret, that which
comes from the depths. Pluto deals in the transformation of energy and, as we know,
accidents happen when things get out of control. The hard angles (oppositions and squares)
are tougher to handle, more challenging. But the major nuclear accidents we have looked at
here show a definite correlation with astrological patterns.

Astrology might then even have some contribution to nuclear safety, considering the nature
and extent of the risks involved, the expense of maintaining effective safety measures not to
mention the cost of the public relations campaigns to assure the public of the continuing safety
of nuclear power. So maybe companies like British Nuclear Fuels (the heirs of the United
Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority) and other nuclear power companies around the world
should consider employing astrologers to determine the times of highest risk of nuclear
accidents. They will find my rates quite reasonable.

© Brian Lee 2000

Chart data

Tokaimura accident
30 Sep 1999 10:35
Japan Standard Time (-9:00)
Tokai, Japan
36N27 140E34
(time from The Guardian)

Chernobyl accident
26 Apr 1986 01:24
Soviet Time Zone 3 (-4:00)
Chernobyl, Ukraine
51N17 030E14
(time from the Uranium Institute)

2
Three Mile Island accident
28 Mar 1979. 07:24.
Eastern Daylight Time (+4:00)
Harrisburg PA
40N16 076W53
(time from the President’s Commission report)

Windscale fire
10 Oct 1957 time unknown
Seascale UK
54N24 003W29

Chicago 1 Pile
2 Dec 1942 15:25
Central War Time (+5:00)
Chicago IL
41N52 087W39
(time from “The Book of World Horoscopes” Nicholas Campion)

Further Information available online from:

The Uranium Institute (the International Association for Nuclear Energy).

Their site provides public information on uranium and all matters nuclear including a blow by
blow account of the major accidents.
http://www.uilondon.org/index.htm

University of Aberystwyth has a section on Nuclear Accidents with a good page on the effects
of the Chernobyl accident on health and the environment.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/~bbt6/index.html

The Three Mile Island Alert website is a comprehensive resource on the accident including
information on health hazards and extracts from the President’s Commission report.
http://www.enviroweb.org/tmia/croom.htm

moonletter@nakedlight.co.uk