Where is William Morris getting his facts about nuclear waste?
Spent nuclear fuel (uranium) is not kept in cooling water for a few months, but for five years. By then, the danger of the fuel melting is past and it can be placed in dry casks, but that doesn't mean the nuclear waste is now safe. In fact, some of the uranium, through the absorption of neutrons, is transformed into plutonium 239, which has a half-life of 24,000 years and is dangerously radioactive for 240,000 years.
The production of nuclear power is wasteful. Much of the mining is done on the lands of Native Americans, tens of thousands of whom are suffering its ill effects. Nuclear power has always been subsidized and protected from lawsuits by the federal government. It's rather dismaying to see a longtime Libertarian, who should be committed to free enterprise, embrace this industry, which couldn't survive without government handouts.
David McCorquodale
Sherwood Park II
