Let’s have a no-nuke future

Proposed legislation promoting 200 new U.S. nuclear reactors is foolhardy. Construction costs will continue to escalate, exceeding $10 billion each before any could be operational 10 years hence; $2 trillion for completion would become the largest energy boondoggle in U.S. history.

Furthermore, despite claims it's "clean,” dirty fossil fuel is expended, deadly radioactive waste created throughout the nuclear energy cycle, with no safe method to reprocess or store it forever. This waste, now stored on site, may be shipped to some dump, whereby it would traverse many population centers. For everybody’s safety, we are obligated to end our dependence on nuclear power.

Instead we must opt for more economical and safer options, conservation and putting our resources into clean and renewable energy.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future will soon issue recommendations for managing radioactive waste. They are considering a nuclear reprocessing plant, which South Carolina officials eagerly desire. It would extract plutonium from high-level nuclear waste for ensuring another century of nuclear weapons or producing dangerous fuel.

Consequently, much would traverse Western North Carolina, creating potential hazards of radioactive incidents.

A disposal site would eventually be required. Since Sandy Mush was considered 25 years ago, then deferred, it might be reconsidered, in which case, that would be permanent.

Let’s have a no-nuke future, with investment in safe, sustainable energy and employment. Our actions now could determine our future.

Contact Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future in opposition to “recycling” nuclear waste and transportation of this waste through our mountains at BRC@nuclear.energy.gov.

— Lew Patrie, M.D.
WNC Physicians for Social Responsibility
Asheville