To: pdiehl@nctimes.com
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Inaccurate title: "Feds: Nuke waste dump will be fine"
To: Phil Diehl, NC Times
From: Russell Hoffman
Date: January 5th, 2002
Re: Skull Valley

Mr. Diehl,

Your front-page article in today's North County Times, titled: "Feds: Nuke waste dump will be fine" should have been titled something like: "Feds say temporary spent fuel storage facility will be fine, but they're just guessing (and ignoring many facts)".  That would much more accurately portray the current situation.

At least you correctly point out in the article that all the Feds (who are desperate for a spent fuel storage facility) are really saying is that the risks to the Goshute Indians are outweighed by the benefits to the Nuclear Industry.  But most people will probably just read the headline, and so they'll figure there's no problem.  Presumably that's just what your editors want, or they would have given the article a more reasonable and accurate title.

SKULL VALLEY IS NOT A "DUMP".  A "dump" would be a permanent facility such as Yucca Mountain (which could also be termed a "disaster" if you prefer; it's the same thing).  Skull Valley is really just a bunch of nuclear companies trying to figure out the minimum payoff that will get a few dozen Indians to ignore the dangers to their land for the sake of expediency.

The Feds have not adequately addressed the problems associated with transporting the extremely dangerous spent fuel to the site.  Nor have they properly addressed the problems of vulnerabilities to terrorism of the 40,000 tons of high-level waste which would be stored there, or 1000 other problems.  All they've done is successfully hoodwinked some Indians into agreeing to let us take their land -- temporarily, the Feds claim -- for money.  Nothing new about that; we've been doing it since the 1600s.

Why the Goshute Indians might be foolish enough to trust Washington is beyond me; you'd think they would have learned their lesson in five centuries.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA