Letter: Safe storage not a priority for Cheney

Monday, May 21, 2001 | 9:09 a.m.

The statement made by Vice President Dick Cheney that the French have been storing the waste safely and in an environmentally sound way is not true. The French reprocess all the waste, ending up with materials with a life of a million years that are dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.

Cheney has not addressed the transportation of the waste to the disposal site. The Energy Department estimates that it will take at least 25 trucks a week traveling on our highways for 24 years to move the high-level nuclear waste from reactors to Yucca Mountain. When the people of these areas are made aware of this fact, I doubt if a statement from Cheney that it is "safe" will be sufficient.

Cheney should be supporting fuel cells powered by hydrogen. The expansion of this technology would allow the placement of the electrical energy source next to the user of the power.

This would decrease the dependence on the national grid system, reduce the need for fossil fuels, and have no carbon dioxide emission or waste. I doubt if the White House will support this method, as it is not compatible with the petroleum and nuclear industry.

LOU DEBOTTARI, Carson City