RE: Nuclear Plants are the answer to oil dependency

Mr. Green is absolutely right! Oil company owners, posturing Putin, chaffing Chavez and aggressive Ahmadinejad all rely on our political leader’s lack of will to do anything about our trade deficit with these “allies” or our global warming crisis. All the while, American nuclear technology will soon make France 90 percent energy independent, with the cleanest air of any industrialized country and the cheapest electricity in all of Europe.

Fourth generation power plants do not need to be located on our shorelines, have been hardened to withstand terrorist attacks and can automatically shut down safely in the event of an operational irregularity. The facts are that in 1982, US coal burning released 155 times as much radioactivity into the atmosphere as the Three Mile Island incident and that most human exposure to radiation comes from natural background radiation or medical procedures. Studies throughout the world have found no evidence of any increase in cancer mortality among people living near nuclear facilities, but 3 million people worldwide are killed annually by outdoor air pollution from vehicles and industrial emissions.

In clear cash terms, if the costs of health and environmental impacts (not including global warming) are taken into consideration, the price of electricity from coal would double and that from natural gas would increase 30 percent, making nuclear power the unquestioned economic answer to our large-scale energy needs. We have the ability to make it, the capacity to store the by-products safely, the need to reduce our toxic emissions and the presence of mind to know we should stop empowering our adversaries.

Would you rather watch as oil merchants maintain their positions as the most profitable countries and companies while poisoning our world, pillaging our pocketbooks, purchasing our banks, stock exchanges and disrupting peace on earth; or would you rather drive down Historic Route 395, enjoying clear skies and the ability to splurge on a splendid lunch in Fallbrook from the savings nuclear power can provide? The real question is: “why is no one representing us or running for public office speaking to this substantive solution to many of our most serious problems?”

Tom Casey