Letters

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   HAVE YOUR SAY Feel strongly about something? Share it with the community by writing a letter to the editor. You’ll need to include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) We reserve the right to edit letters, but if you keep yours to 250 words or less, we won’t ask you to shorten it. If your letter is published, please wait 30 days before submitting another. Send it to: E-mail: letters@heraldnet.com Mail: Letters section The Herald P.O. Box 930 Everett, WA 98206 Fax: 425-339-3458 Have a question about letters? Contact Carol MacPherson (cmacpherson@heraldnet.com or 425-339-3472).   Published: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 ENERGY SOLUTIONS Nuclear power is not the answer Regarding the Friday letter, "Nuclear energy can answer our needs": In the 1950s, nuclear power looked like our best option for future energy. Today nuclear power seems obsolete and expensive. Nuclear power's costs are rising because it requires tremendous amounts of costly fossil fuels to mine, process and transport uranium and build nuclear power plants. Plus, there are serious environmental concerns our federal government cannot seem to address. Consider the current economic costs of building a nuclear power plant. There is talk of adding two more nuclear power plants along the Pee Dee River in North Carolina at a taxpayer cost of half a trillion dollars for 2 gigawatts of power (2,000 megawatts). For twice this cost we could produce the same output from solar power. The difference? Solar power comes with its own power supply while nuclear power plants must be constantly fed enriched uranium. Grid-tied solar power lends itself to distributed production that is easier on the grid and more likely to be fully or partly funded by home and business owners. Nuclear power is public-capital-intensive and heaps heavy loads onto an already overloaded grid. Now consider the environmental costs. For every ton of enriched uranium produced seven tons of depleted uranium waste are produced. This highly toxic waste is housed in federal repositories at taxpayer expense indefinitely. Right now our nation has no long-term storage facility for spent fuel. After decades of interstate stalemate, half of our spent fuel is stored above ground at plants in air casks because the "temporary" water containment facilities are exhausted. We need to power down and prepare for a different kind of existence than we have known for nearly a century. This does not mean we necessarily need to "tend sheep." It does mean using ingenuity to live in harmony with nature vs. plundering and poisoning this home we share. Eric Teegarden Brier

1. Early morning gunfire wounds 2 in Everett 2. Father guilty of manslaughter in girl's death 3. ZZ Top fans get Everett buzzing 4. Crash devastating for toddler 5. Snohomish County budget passes, with a caveat 6. Fall 2009 Wesco All-League Teams 7. Laundry fire sparks concerns over smoke detectors 8. Two people injured in Highway 9 collision 9. Northrop: Boeing's 767 ‘no longer commercially viable' 10. Lynnwood police seek hit-and-run driver 2 - Top 10 Stories Most Talked about 3 - Top 10 Stories Most Emailed

• Holiday Lightings & Santa Sightings • Ruling in the pool • Archbishop Murphy takes title • A season of performing arts • Budget numbers have official fuming • Wildcats move on to 2A semifinals • Holiday Bazaars & Fairs Calendar • Edmonds’ Westgate Chapel serves up hospitality for holiday • Mavericks fall • Boeing will build, flight test and deliver 787s in South Carolina to spe ... • Snohomish County EDC promoting job growth in key industry clusters • $4 million grant to advance brain tumor research has Everett links • Providence medical center construction tops off its 12-story steel frame ... • Tulalip affordable housing project to be financed by KeyBank, Raymond Ja ... • Arlington's Lak of Ink has a growing following for Luke Kooyman's creati ... • Bank of the Northwest formed • Cascade Bank earns $1.6 million