Wednesday, March 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
* LAST MONTH, THE Chicago Tribune fell prey to the organized letter-writing campaign of the nuclear power industry whose purpose is to misrepresent the position of Nevadans who oppose the federal government's effort to bury the nation's radioactive garbage in our desert. The Tribune, like some other major papers in the country, accepted Hal Rogers' letter, we assume, without knowing that he was paid by the nuke waste industry to distort the facts. The following letter, written by Citizen Alert's Richard Nelson to the Chicago Tribune, sets the record straight. We commend it to our readers.
CITIZEN ALERT IS a 22-year-old nonprofit organization in Nevada, with roughly 2,500 dues-paying members here and throughout the country. As a public interest organization, it is our responsibility to inform your readers that the opinions of the so-called "Study Committee," expressed in the letter published in the Chicago Tribune on Feb. 27, do not accurately reflect the reality of the situation regarding the proposed high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
"The 15,000 Nevadans whom Hal Rogers and the Study Committee claim to represent and speak for are nothing more than a bloated mailing list. The Study Committee was created by the nuclear industry, its sole funder, to try and convince Nevadans that a repository in our state was inevitable and, so, we should all give up the fight. Many of those on the mailing list, including this organization, are adamant opponents of the proposed Yucca Mountain dump and signed up to receive their newsletter only to keep informed of the group's activities and to counteract this very kind of mischief. You need only to pick up a newspaper in Nevada on any given day to realize that all Mr. Rogers' assertions in his editorial are very much incorrect.
"The Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste dump is opposed by a growing, overwhelming majority of the state's residents as well as many groups and individuals nationwide who realize that this is an unsuitable and dangerous site. For the waste to get here it has to pass through 43 states within one-half mile of 52 million people. In Illinois alone, an estimated 5,588 huge truck shipments and 7,236 rail casks would traverse the state in order to deliver this deadly cargo from Eastern reactor sites to Nevada. It is also proposed that there be barge intermodal transfer locations at Cairo and Chicago.
"Yucca Mountain is not a suitable location for a high-level nuclear waste dump or storage facility. An earthquake 12 miles away just four years ago resulted in severe damage to the Field Operations Center there. The Geological Society of America reported 15 small earthquakes at Yucca Mountain from May 1995 to October 1996. Also, within the last year the Department of Energy's own site investigators discovered chlorine 36, a residue from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing, within the mountain at the depth where a repository would be.
"This proves that, contrary to government scientists' earlier belief, water and air move rapidly through the mountain, a condition highly adverse to waste isolation. In addition, cones from volcanic eruptions, that could occur again, are clearly visible at the site. The location adjacent to Yucca Mountain, currently proposed in federal legislation for a temporary nuclear waste storage site, could not be licensed for a commercial nuclear reactor because of the threat of earthquakes. Nevadans also reject the word 'temporary' because we know, as do most people, that nuclear waste is never temporary.
"Our organization seeks a thorough examination and review of all national nuclear waste policies and programs with meaningful and effective public participation. The general public is frustrated by the way decisions are made and the heavy-handed way in which the resulting programs are implemented. In an honest and open dialogue, many nuclear industry claims would be seen as clear deceptions, for instance the frequently heard statement that 'instead of waste being stored at 109 locations, there should be just one desert site.'
"Unless all of the nuclear reactors shut down when the first shipment of waste leaves, the reactors will continue to produce waste, and when any is pulled from the storage pools, new waste will replace it. So Nevada just becomes an additional waste site. And if there are transportation accidents, unsuspecting communities along the way could be waste sites, too. If irradiated fuel at the reactor sites is a serious environmental problem, Yucca Mountain is not the answer.
"It is our belief that the Yucca Mountain project addresses only the commercial nuclear utility's desire to move their economic and liability problems away from their property. The real problem with nuclear waste is that it presents grave dangers to public health and safety and the environment. The only solution is isolation from the biosphere. We support the many groups and individuals who are working in reactor communities for safer nuclear waste management. Transporting waste to any state or tribal land where long-term isolation cannot be assured creates new and possibly greater dangers. No buried nuclear waste has ever stayed securely where it was put, as many unfortunate communities have found out. The Western Shoshone Nation, within whose territorial treaty lands Yucca Mountain is located, tell in eloquent terms that Mother Earth is not meant for such use. We agree."
archive
