Letter: Readers" Forum on nuclear facility full of misstatements

I am writing about the most heinous excuse for reporting I have ever seen, wrapped into one Readers' Forum opinion piece published in Monday's Athens NEWS concerning the new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program at USEC in Piketon. Not only is author Gary "Spruce" Houser extremely biased, but even the Web site he cites is biased. Many of his "points" against nuclear power are misleading and amount to nothing but fear mongering.

To the Editor:
I am writing about the most heinous excuse for reporting I have ever seen, wrapped into one Readers' Forum opinion piece published in Monday's Athens NEWS concerning the new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program at USEC in Piketon. Not only is author Gary "Spruce" Houser extremely biased, but even the Web site he cites is biased. Many of his "points" against nuclear power are misleading and amount to nothing but fear mongering.

I don't have space to address all the fallacies in Mr. Houser's opinion piece, but here's a few of them:
Mr. Houser states that "this plan - concocted by large corporations invested in nuclear power and their advocates in the Bush administration — is aimed at bailing out the nuclear industry…" Yes, the Bush administration has expressed minor interest in reviving nuclear power; yet even this claim drips with the misleading drivel throughout this article. The revival of the nuclear power industry is part of the country's plan to deal with the upcoming energy crisis. Also, the inference that corporations own and profit greatly from running nuclear power plants is wrong, too. They lease them from the Department of Energy and at a great cost to themselves, which makes profits very marginal.

The next ludicrous statement that Mr. Houser asserts is that "Each nuclear power plant produces the equivalent of approximately 1,000 Hiroshima bombs…" This is downright laughable. If you live next door to a nuclear power plant, you receive much less exposure than you would from ordinary daily activities such as X-rays and smoking.

Arguably, the most outlandish statement he makes is that terrorists could somehow blow up the dump-site and cause an explosion of immense proportion, due to the volatility of nuclear waste. If you have even a basic knowledge of the workings of nuclear power, you would know that used nuclear fuel cannot explode and does not burn.

I cannot vouch for the safety record of those who were contracted at the site in the earlier decades.
However, after spending my entire senior year in high school participating in a program that allowed me to follow and assist those who still work on the sites, I can say that much of the contamination and errors have long since been fixed, and there are more than enough safety procedures to keep those things from happening ever again.

Then comes yet again the unceasing barrage of false arguments: "It is being claimed that some waste will be reprocessed and recycled when the technology for such has not even been invented…" Pardon my Internet jargon but OMG ROFL! With little due respect, we have had this technology since the inset of the nuclear power industry!

As for those who read his "article" and said to themselves, "Wow, I did not know that; that's really dangerous!" I beg of you, do some research, using balanced sources, before you make up your mind about nuclear power. Please do not let yourselves be swayed by fear-mongers.

John Charlton, OU sophomore
South Green Drive
Athens