Letter: Don’t buy into scare tactics around nuclear power

The article by Jacy Marmaduke in the June 26 Coloradoan was well written and presented both sides of the case for nuclear power. I completely agree with Professor Michael Fox that we need to include nuclear power in the mix of sources that meet both energy needs and environmental constraints. Unfortunately, as the article points out, nuclear power has been the victim of misleading and sensationalist reports in the media for decades.

It seems that the less people understand radiation and its effects the more likely they are to be afraid of it. I have not found the Union of Concerned "Scientists" to be better informed than the general public. The fact is that nuclear power plant designs in this country have become safer over the years, and we have never had a commercial nuclear power plant accident in the U.S. that resulted in widespread contamination or fatality.

It is sad that scare tactics by environmentalists have driven up the costs of building and getting permits for nuclear power plants so that utilities are not planning for new ones, which means we are in danger of losing the technological know-how if we need them again. I can only hope that we can reverse this trend before we find ourselves with dwindling options for supplying energy needs of the future.

James G. Ling, Ph.D., nuclear resource management, Fort Collins