Letter: Nevadans need to speak up on nuke waste

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002 | 9 a.m.

One can feel the progress, quietly congratulated behind closed doors, of efforts to gain the necessary approvals to activate the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain.

The mood in the area remains skeptical of the outcome, and I have heard younger people with families talk of moving away, fearing what might lie ahead. Many of us may not have given up on a possible reversal of this misguided effort to sacrifice our area to the needs of the nuclear power industry and the callous attitude of people elsewhere, who have calculated that regardless of what happens at the Yucca Mountain site, that they would be a safe distance away.

It leads to a feeling of isolation, vulnerability and helplessness. Presumably there is also anger and resentment as many of us feel that all we have is at risk. Most importantly we could be written off as collateral damage, in the event of a nuclear accident, the current vernacular for what is considered the inadvertent loss of life necessary to protect a greater good. Some of us may take exception to that offhand comparison, but we can't take for granted the compassion of others.

A right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" does not seem to apply equally to residents of each of the fifty states. It is a perversion of justice that we should even have to think of protecting ourselves from the acts of our national government in order to assure our own safety. Nevertheless, that is central to what is currently at stake. Nevadans must speak up in order to avoid the prospect of becoming collateral damage.

ERIC STEFIK