Letter: Subsidies for nuke companies are disgraceful

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 5:25 a.m.

America's energy policy is a good example of corporate welfare in action. Can you imagine that nuclear power, to produce electricity, will be given subsidies? It's disgraceful!

Nuclear power is touted as being safe, clean and economical. These are three lies. Safe? What about Three Mile Island and the other near misses since nuclear power was first used to produce electricity in 1957? Clean? Don't only think of smokestack emissions. What about the toxic waste? Economical? Why the corporate welfare? Why the Price Anderson legislation? Why were the American people made responsible for nuclear waste in 1954?

The federal government is irresponsible when it comes to the nuclear power industry. Decisions are made politically and science is secondary.

We still don't know if the Department of Energy-Nuclear Regulatory Commission plan is to use trucks, rail or a combination of both to transport nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

Yucca Mountain has tunnels but no emplacement drifts dug. This additional mining will change the geology and render most tests, done to date, as invalid.

Where are the definitive tests on transportation and storage casks? Why isn't terrorism being factored into transportation plans? A shoulder-held weapon can make a nuclear waste cask into a dirty bomb!

FRANK PERNA