Energy Aperture

Value chain · CLM-1288

In plain terms

The 1978 draft plan said long-term low-level studies would decide whether the satellite was safe for the public, but that in the two to three years available most effort would go to checking earlier alarming reports, with three-fifths of the money on health.

The claim as recorded

The 1978 draft recommendation set a near-term objective to give the Department of Energy, by the end of FY 80, bioeffects data, a preliminary assessment of the potential for adverse health or ecological effects from the SPS, and future objectives. It stated that the results of prospective studies of continuous, low-level 2.45 GHz exposure "will be the primary determinants of the feasibility of the SPS from the public health point of view", but that to meet the near-term objective the major effort over the next three years would go to retrospective studies: attempts to validate apparently credible published reports of adverse effects of 2450 MHz or radiofrequency radiation. It split resources 60 per cent health, 25 per cent ecological and 15 per cent dosimetry, calling the split "arbitrary but intuitive". Its human studies were a follow-up of a study of radar and radio operators, late effects in 1940-1945 radiation laboratory workers, and clinical records of microwave oven workers; it also listed heat-sensitive and chronically ill populations, drug interactions, the elderly or infants, and simultaneous exposure to 2450 MHz with FM, UHF-TV or radar frequencies.

T3 government or agency report · medium confidence · as of 1978-03 · past review · VER-1968 CONFIRMED 2026-10-02 · VC07, XC03

Evidence behind this: T3, a draft programme recommendation addressed to the US Department of Energy, with no issuing body printed; its priorities and splits are its own stated judgements.

Scope and limits

A DRAFT, unsigned and with no issuing body printed; what the programme actually funded is in the 1980 assessments (SRC-086, SRC-529), not here. The page's "principle" is its own spelling. The "two to three years" in plain paraphrases the page's "next three years" against an FY 80 end. The SRC-500 record (1978 preliminary assessment) already names continuous low-level exposure as the priority; this record adds the feasibility statement, the retrospective strategy, the split and the named human cohorts.

What it assumes

No assumptions are recorded against this claim.

Where it comes from

SRC-650 Draft recommendations for a program to assess the health and ecological impacts of microwave...
text, PDF p.2: "By the end of FY 80, provide the Department of Energy with bioeffects data and preliminary assessment of the potential for adverse health or ecological effects". PDF p.3 (render read): "The principle health issues connected with the SPS are the unknown effects of continuous, low-level exposure to 2.45 GHz radiation"; "The results of the studies will be the primary determinants of the feasibility of the SPS from the public health point of view." PDF p.4: "a major thrust over the next three years will have to be directed towards retrospective studies"; "attempts to validate those apparently credible, published reports". PDF p.19: "Health Effects - 60%", "Ecological Effects - 25%", "Dosimetry - 15%"; "These are arbitrary but intuitive feelings". PDF p.8: studies 27 to 29 (radar and radio operators follow-up; "MIT radiation lab workers (1940-1945)"; "microwave oven workers"). PDF p.9: studies 35 to 38 (heat-sensitive or chronically ill populations; drugs; "the elderly or infants"; "2450 MHz and FM, UHF-TV, or radar frequencies").

Basis: per cent of programme resources; fiscal years

Related records
Answers question
QST-001 not published in this release

Cite this

energyaperture.com/c/clm-1288

CLM-1288, Energy Aperture, as of 1978-03.

Connected records

Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.

Also from SRC-650
CLM-1287In 1978 a draft plan for the US satellite power programme proposed that every lab test rats the same way, at fixed microwave levels from...
CLM-1289The 1978 plan aimed to find, by stepping the dose up or down, the lowest microwave level that changed anything in mice, rabbits, birds and...