Nuclear Power Not the Safe Alternative

As they say, it is deja vu all over again. General Atomics of San Diego is going to build a plutonium fueled reactor in Russia (“Post-Nuclear Fallout,” March 19). Of course it will be safe, cheap and absolutely indispensable. Right.

It would be the utmost folly for the Department of Energy to approve any project that would continue to use nuclear fuel, especially plutonium. With its half life of 25,000 years its mere presence represents the insanity of nuclear ventures. All the promises of safety, economy and need for nuclear energy ventures have proven to be the most outrageous deceptions. There should be no complicity by the Department of Energy in this madness.

General Atomics has been preparing this project for years even though every indication points to the fact that nuclear energy is too dangerous, too expensive and not needed. It is a tragedy that companies like General Atomics are willing to exploit the distressing state of the Russian economy by sacrificing the health and well being of the Russian people for the sake of profit. Would we approve such a proposal in our own communities?

The Russian people have already suffered and died from endless spills, accidents, explosions and other radiation poisoning. Has Chernobyl taught us nothing?

We should resist any attempt to approve this venture and we should demand the energetic promotion of renewable, safe and economically viable alternative sources of energy both here and abroad.

TANJA WINTER

La Jolla