Letter to Editor

Kansas City Star

July 11, 2001

In a KC Star on July 10, 2001 letter, one of your readers complained about the dangers of so-called nuclear waste (spent fuel) being shipped across Missouri. We have been safely shipping nuclear material around the USA for over 50 years. We have also been operating more than 100 nuclear power plants for over 40 years and not one person has been injured or even made ill from radiation at these plants. No other industry has such a perfect safety record.

On the so-called nuclear waste the Department of Energy has spent billions of dollars developing a storage site at Yucca Mountain , Nevada to store this material. We have been caring for it on-site (at nuclear power facilities) for all these years without any problems and we should continue to do so until it is needed. We used to reprocess and reuse it until President Carter stopped that.

The writer also says Germany is shutting down its nuclear plants. The Swedes said the same thing several years ago but backed off when they realized they would have to go back to using whale oil lamps.

Lloyd L. Mielke

supporting member of EFN