Letter: Keep nuke waste where it is now

Tuesday, July 2, 2002 | 9:01 a.m.

There are about 300 scientific questions yet to be answered regarding plans to store nuclear waste in Nevada. Why can't they wait till we find answers? Why the hurry to dump before we get the answers? What is the very purpose of searching for the answers? Is it not to find the risks involved among others in the dumping?

One obvious reason for the undue hurry is that if any answer shows the extreme dangers involved, the whole program will have to be scuttled. The supporters want to avoid such a chance. Once it is dumped we cannot undo it.

We hear warnings every day of possible terrorist attacks; terrorists will use all opportunities to cause accidents involving nuclear waste, endangering lives and property of as many people as possible.

Is it not better to keep the waste where it is now? Even when the waste is removed, they still have the active nuclear reactors which continue to produce wastes, and thus they still face the risk as before. Is it not better to keep the wastes there until facilities are constructed to convert the waste to useful materials and less harmful wastes?

M. C. CHACO