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March 21 we read in the BDN “Other Voices” (a reprint of an editorial from a Las Vegas paper) regarding nuclear energy. Interestingly the unattributed article only mentions the 1979 “nuclear accident” at Three Mile Island. But most people know about the 1986 “nuclear disaster” at Chernobyl and the 2011 “nuclear disaster” at Fukushima. Yes, disasters not accidents and not in the U.S.! Were we just lucky in 1979 at Three Mile Island?
However, the final sentence of this reprinted article really caught my attention! The anonymous writer infers that many of us choose to ignore how “clean” nuclear energy really is!
Nuclear Energy cannot be called clean energy since it generates huge amounts of toxic waste. The multiple stages of the nuclear fuel cycle produce large volumes of radioactive waste. No government has yet resolved how to safely manage this waste. Whoever wrote for the Las Vegas publication and seems to travel with free market Libertarians at Reason.com perhaps isn’t as well informed as we ordinary citizens of Maine!
Jan Kruse
Searsport