So what it's hot, Everybody in the (waste) pool

The results of the election brought a slight sense of relief but the real work must be now. I implore you. Please heed the call.

I read in Business Week of November 12, 2006 that Nancy Pelosi’s choice to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee is John Dingell of Michigan who, "favors nuclear waste legislation that could help the atomic energy industry build the first new reactors in decades.” I ask myself how can educated people get suckered in to believe the fallacy that a temporary solution is adequate even though it is not safe, clean or reliable?

Meanwhile Harry Reid, new Senate majority leader,“pledged to push legislation requiring that nuclear waste be stored on-site where it's produced” according to the Las Vegas Sun. At least his view makes sense to me. It is his backyard.

Closer to home newly elected Congressman Peter Welch of Vermont named as his chief of staff a former Green Mountain Power vice president of public affairs who had previously held the same post at Central Vermont Public Service. CVPS and GMP were the two primary owners of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp before the sale to Entergy in 2002.

In NY, we have a new Governor who stated that he would close down Indian Point if elected. We have an anti nuclear new Congressman in John Hall. How do we hold these elected officials accountable? We use the system that elected them, and we get creative in using the few rights not yet usurped by the current administration in Washington.

Nuclear is at best a temporary stop-gap measure to provide us with abundant "cheap" electricity. It is cheap only because of the government subsidies, only because of future generations being asked to clean up our waste. It is cheap because the industry that provides it does not have to offer insurance in the event of an accident.

Please do not rest on the laurels of your vote. Voting is not enough. We need you and your voice.

Nuclear is far too impractical, expensive and slow an approach to combat the global warming phenomenon. Nuclear is not clean, green, nor sustainable. Building reactors, enriching and mining uranium, storing and protecting the deadly waste take huge outlays of carbon emissions aka ozone destroying emissions. For nuclear to be a solution to global warming a new reactor would need to be built somewhere in the world every two weeks and this would require a new “Yucca Mountain” sized repository every two to three years.

These are show-stoppers folks! They are real. So many reactors would not have powered down in last Summer's heat waves if nuclear were the answer the nuclear industry makes it out to be. It is up to us to convince our elected representatives that nuclear is not sustainable. We need our leaders to support measures that continue life without threatening it. Our elected officials must not be lead by the corporate economics that have controlled the purse strings to the state and federal coffers. This campaign is gaining steam now. Bring your election jubilation to this campaign now. Let’s use the recent victories to create needed change forour present and our future generations.