NEI Nuclear Notes

A letter from Martha Gordon of Monmouth Oregon to the Statesman-Journal of Salem (Ore.), re-rendered as a poem: As one survivor of the Dust Bowl who experienced the failure of one mistaken idea, I am vitally afraid of earth-shaking experiments. Our experience with nukes, you would think, would rival that of a child learning about fire by getting burned. Our wind power, while not so fruitful in this water-lush year, is a “money in the bank” recourse for the dry years predicted to come. How can we justify more nukes on our beautiful Columbia? I was struck by Ms. Gordon’s (who must be well into her eighties if she remembers the dust bowl) artful arrangement of words in making her lyrical and somewhat mysterious statement about the vagaries of energy. So it’s not pro-nuclear – or is it?  Or is that even the point? Wind, nuclear, natural gas – she alludes to their power generating potential and, like the first person confronted ...