http://www.times-standard.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?avis=NJ&date=20150227&category=NEWS&lopenr=150229858&Ref=AR&profile=1030040

Whistleblower’s book tells his Humboldt County story
By Will Houston, Eureka Times-Standard
Posted: 02/27/15

Rowen, a former U.S. Marine, says he was fired for speaking up about safety issues. Shaun Walker — The Times-Standard

In the time of Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, one of Humboldt County’s older whistleblowers is telling his side of the story in a book chronicling his radioactive relationship with PG&E in the 1960s and early 1970s and what he considers the nuclear power industries’ betrayal of public trust.

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Rowen is currently touring the North Coast with his new, self-published book, “My Humboldt Diary: A True Story of Betrayal of the Public Trust,” in which he claims PG&E plant management and related government agencies made decisions or intentionally ignored incidents of radioactive exposure to both power plant employees and members of the surrounding communities. Along with the ensuing aftermath of his whistleblowing activity, the meticulously detailed 487-page diary delves into Rowen’s arguments against the nation’s use of nuclear energy, what he says were attempts to smear his character and investigations, media censorship and the violation of public trust. “I’m wired to expose corruption,” he said. “People fabricate things and have a total disregard for public and employee safety. I’m wired to do something about it. ... It’s corporate America. It’s not just PG&E that engages in this kind of behavior. They’re going to do whatever they find necessary to protect their interests. The whole system seems to be rooted in greed and the bottom line — employee safety, public safety be damned.”

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After being fired from PG&E, Rowen brought his findings to the Atomic Energy Commission, which found that PG&E had not committed any major safety violations relating to radiation exposure in its investigation. Rowen dedicates an entire chapter of the book, “The AEC Whitewash,” to the investigation, listing each of his claims and the agency’s responses.

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Rowen said his family would also receive anonymous death threats after the “infamous” 1970 safety meeting, terrifying his 6-year-old son Rob who received one unintentionally after picking up the phone after being told not to by his parents.

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“It’s not that I’m trying to get back at PG&E with this book, I’m trying to wake up the public,” he said. “... The purpose is to show what the nuclear industry is capable of doing, how far they’re willing to go to protect what turns out to be a failed and dangerous technology and how anyone who attempts to expose this has to be dealt with. ... If people remain ignorant of what the nuclear industry is doing and is capable of doing then nothing will change.”

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