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November 30, 2009

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Letter: World awaits Yucca decision

Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001 | 8:45 a.m.

We keep hearing how superior rock in Europe is to contain high-level radioactive wastes.

Wonder why wastes have yet to be buried in that superior rock? The French keep saying how their granite mountains are the best barriers for radioactive materials, yet not the first pound of waste has found its way in them. The Russians claim the Ural Mountains will no doubt contain wastes for tens of thousands of years, yet they too hold no wastes. And Finland, which in 1982 decided on an underground repository, has yet to build it.

It's obvious everybody's afraid to be first. It's obvious everybody's waiting to see what the U.S. will do.

So the decision about the inferior, leaky rock of Yucca Mountain will, in essence, be a decision followed by the entire world.

RON BOURGOIN Rocky Mount, N.C.

Editor's note: The writer was the consultant to the town of Rolesville in Wake County, N.C., in 1984 when a site in that area was being considered by the Department of Energy as a potential high-level radioactive waste repository.

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