Smilin' Joe Fission

June 13, 2002

Yesterday, I saw a news release about nuclear waste shipping maps going online, and found it ironic after this week's news about the "dirty bomb" plot. I glanced through the site, and got the impression that the creators, the Environmental Working Group were against Yucca Mountain. This morning, I got some feedback from Liz Moore of the Environmental Working Group:

Thank you for pointing out our website. We feel it is very useful and we'd like to get the word out.

However, I must clarify that the Environmental Working Group is not opposed to the Yucca Mountain project. We have no opinion on whether Yucca would make a good repository.

We do, however, take issue with the fact that there is no clear transportation plan. Our purpose is to increase the public's awareness that the Department of Energy is planning on shipping nuclear waste on trains, trucks and barges, and has had no dialogue with those who would have this high-level radioactive waste coming through their backyards. The government has also led the public to believe that there will no longer be nuclear waste at their local plants; that it would all be shipped to Yucca Mountain. This is absolutely untrue and even Spencer Abraham has been quoted in the Associated Press as saying that there will still be waste at nuclear power plants througout the country after the Yucca repository is full.

The reason we posted this website is because we believe the public has a right to know about this. We would like for the public to have a say in this before the government makes a decision.

Isn't nuclear power great?

Uh-oh. Looks like there's a little left-over nuclear waste.
[pulls out a hand broom] No problem!
I'll just put them where nobody will find them for a million years!
[sweeps the wasties under a throw rug and stomps them down]
-- Smilin' Joe Fission, "Homer's Odyssey"

So why aren't we providing more public funding towards creating an infrastructure of solar and wind power?