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Letters to the editor: Nuclear reactors: Public risk, corporate profits Dear Editor: According to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), and the Bush Administration are advocating an energy bill that would, among other things: a. Spend billions of taxpayers dollars on a new generation of nuclear reactors. b. Renew the Price-Anderson Act indefinitely, thereby insulating the nuclear industry from liability in the event of a catastrophic accident. c. Fund, to the tune of a billion dollars, research to make hydrogen fuel from nukes� I do not get it. Why subsidize the nuclear energy industry that promised 50 years ago to generate electricity "too cheap to meter?" Why should the public assume risk while corporations collect the profits? Why did President Bush fail to mention nuclear reactors in his last State of the Union address? (Nukes are now slated to receive more funding than his much touted hydrogen energy pitch.) Why compound our nation's burden of perils, and threat to free society with this ghastly technology? Michael Mariotte of NIRS answers: "It's not about energy. It's about ensuring that our nation's energy resources stay in the hands of the few - especially the centralized nuclear power utilities and manufacturers�In the long run, the people who wrote and support this energy bill will make the executives of Enron look like paragons of social responsibility." This might sound like hyperbole until one considers the fact that one nuclear reactor accident would not only cost billions of dollars. It could kill thousands, some quickly, many slowly from radiation sickness and induced cancers. It would render hundreds of square miles of land uninhabitable. It will further encumber posterity already assigned an impoverished planet drained by our society's collective improvidence. I urge Americans to reject this path and insist on environmentally sound energy policy. Leif Joslyn, Ashland Editor's note: For more information on the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, log on to www.nirs.org ; Domenici Web site: http://domenici.senate.gov LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -