Dear HCN,
Nobody has more distrust
of the government in affairs radioactive than I do. My credentials
are impeccable. My brother and I both had occurrences of thyroid
cancer 20 years after leaving Richland, Wash., where we grew up at
the Hanford plant in the ’40s and ’50s. Most likely we were
contaminated by drinking milk laced with radioactive iodine that
emanated from the plant that supposedly released no
radioactivity.
Even in this context, I am very
disappointed in your article on Yucca Mountain (HCN, 7/2/01: Can
Nevada bury Yucca Mountain?). It was unacceptably biased in a NIMBY
sort of way. Certainly there are very important sides of the story
that are missing, such as the threat that will face our nation if
we don’t use the Nevada site. Your writers seem to be immersed in
the Nevada propaganda machine, fueled in part by some very poor and
misleading science on the part of Nevada consultants. Of course,
the federal scientists haven’t covered themselves with glory
either, especially in the early days of the
project.
There is plenty of blame and shame to go
around in this controversy and some of the background politics are
downright frightening. But you do the environmental movement no
favor with blatant one-sidedness and you insult the intelligence of
your readers seeking to be educated on a topic.
Orrin H. Pilkey
Durham, North
Carolina
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Yucca Mountain coverage biased.
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