Las Vegas Sun

November 14, 2009

Currently: 51° | Complete forecast | Log in

Letter: Nuclear energy bad from start

Tuesday, July 9, 2002 | 8:56 a.m.

Nuclear scientists and the eager nuclear energy interests, in 1954, bamboozled and lied to oversell nuclear energy in order to produce electricity. I can hear them telling the gullible and over-anxious President Eisenhower and U.S. Congress: "It will produce electricity too cheap to meter" and "it will relieve the U.S. of dependence on foreign oil." Both of these were then and are now untrue.

Don't forget that at this point in 1954 we were awash in nuclear waste. It was nine years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and we were well aware of the horrific health problems inherent in using nuclear energy.

It took years after the Nevada Test Site (1951-1992) closed to force the truth. By then it was too late. Nuclear veterans, Marines and Army, were ill along with NTS workers and down-winders. Did the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission scientists know of the risks and certainty of death, illness and genetic damage? You tell me!

Nuclear power produces 20 percent of our energy and should be phased out as Germany will from 2003 to 2017. Solar, wind, geothermal, fuel cells, bio-mass, fuel cells and hybrid auto technology with a very modest conservation is the answer for our energy woes. The nuclear power producers should be weaned off subsidies and tax breaks.

FRANK PERNA

archive

  • Most Read
  • Discussed
  • Most E-mailed

Complete Listing

Calendar »

  • 14 Sat
  • 15 Sun
  • 16 Mon
  • 17 Tue
  • 18 Wed

All events on Saturday »