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November 9, 2009

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Letter: Many failed to heed early nuke power warning

Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 | 9:15 a.m.

As an environmental activist who fought against nuclear power in the late 1970s, I cannot help but wonder if the Nevadans of today who oppose the Yucca Mountain project fought with me then.

We environmentalists, generally seen as radical flakes by many mainstreamers in the 1970s, tried desperately to point out the risks of nuclear power. One of our central messages was that nuclear waste disposal would be a huge problem with no good solution. We offered alternatives, many of which continue to be ignored today.

I join with the majority of Nevadans who don't want the deadliest wastes of all buried in their back yard. But if more people had joined nuclear opponents in the 1970s and 1980s, and nuclear plants had been closed in favor of less deadly forms of power generation, this sticky problem would be today of much lesser dimension.

LORETTA VAN COPPENOLLE San Antonio, Texas

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