A lot gets lost in the debate for/against nuclear power and it’s impact in Utah. Too many folks jump on the GOP bandwagon that, somehow, over the last few decades, nuclear waste has become perfectly safe.

I reminds me of the CIA agents running all over Vietnam in the 60’s and 70’s showing the Vietnamese natives how safe Agent Orange was by tasting it, getting sprayed with it and sometimes drinking it. They’re pretty much all dead now, and have been since the late 70’s early 80’s, from violent and quick spreading cancers of every variety.

Agent Orange went on to kill high numbers of service members who did little more than walk through a place where it had been sprayed. The progeny of these folks are suffering from multi-generational birth defects and a high percentage of miscarriages and still births. I digress.

Utah has a long, long history with the government and it’s lies/ignorance about nuclear power and its resulting waste. The one remaining thing, the one fact, we have in keeping nuclear waste out of Utah is that we don’t produce any of it. Some folks have a naive, sadly ignorant view on what would happen if Utah went Nuclear, and not common sense, not history nor current events will shake them from their pie in the sky, rectal-cranial inversion on waste with a life span of more than 1000 generations.

The minute we cut ground on a reactor plant – the rest of the country, indeed the rest of the world, if Energy Solutions has it way, will find a way to move hundreds of thousands of tons of waste for storage into Utah. We’re Utah. Our legislature has spent decades letting us get kicked around by the other states and, if there’s a dollar amount attached to it, then damn good policy and on to campaign financing.

There is a voice of clarity, however –

X-Mission owner and Mighty Patriot Pete Ashdown sent a missive to Sen. Steve Urquhart, chair of the Utah Public Utilities Committee, letting him know that maybe there are a few conditions that should be met before we let the likes of former Rep. Tilton start laying waste to our state:

Today at 2:00PM, the Utah Senate Public Utilities Committee will consider a joint resolution expressing support for nuclear power in Utah. This is the letter I sent to Public Utilities Committee chair, Steve Urquhart.

________

Hello Steve, I’d like you to consider a few points in relation to nuclear power in Utah.

1) The Atlas Tailings Pile, left behind by the free market uranium mine, to be cleaned up by taxpayers, still hasn’t been cleaned up in Moab.
2) There isn’t a nuclear plant in operation today that exists without government subsidy. They receive government protection for operation, and according to the residents of Delta I talked to, their local government failed to protect the IPP in a staged attack.

As I see it, Aaron Tilton should be able to do the following before beginning construction of a nuclear power plant in Utah:

1) Pay for it by himself, with no government subsidy or protection forever, with the same rates I pay for water.
2) Guarantee safe waste storage and mine clean-up for 10,000 years with a trust that will last that long.
3) Guarantee safe working conditions, respirators, and lung-cancer treatment for the miners who will mine and refine his “clean” uranium.

It would be nice if he cleaned up Atlas too. Maybe SJR16 should express appreciation to the taxpayers who are going to clean it up.

Best Wishes,

Pete

Way to go Pete, for doing the research, raising your voice and setting an example for responsible, intelligent citizens to follow.