Las Vegas Sun

April 23, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Nuclear waste is too risky for us

As a native of the beautiful wooded state of Washington, I take stewardship of the environment very seriously.

Keeping the coast, rainforests, mountains and trees beautiful and clean is a personal responsibility that Washington natives take to heart. It’s concerning to me that Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and others think that Nevada is a perfect place to dump noxious, toxic, nuclear waste. We need to protect our basic human rights: access to clean air and drinking water. We can do this is by standing behind Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s leadership on Yucca Mountain.

Perry has asked Congress for millions of dollars for a nuclear waste facility. If nuclear waste is exposed to our air, we could see unintended and dangerous consequences. Not to mention the water table sits just a few hundred feet below the proposed site, and hydrogeologists can’t say for sure if our drinking water is safe from this nuclear material.

We would not benefit from nuclear energy, so why should we suffer the environmental and economic damage that would result from decreased tourism in the event of a disaster? We must protect ourselves, our environment and our economy from Yucca Mountain.