To the Editor:

Regarding the people of Nevada protesting the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, I could not help but shudder at the hint of atomic salesmanship depicted in the letter from William H. Miller [Department of Nuclear Engineering, Professor and Chairman, Associate at the Research Reactor, University of Missouri] published yesterday (dated: October 10, 1994).

It appears Mr. Miller, along with nuclear physicist, Kosta Tsipsis [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], deserve some urgent public attention. These gentlemen, and their compatriots at both the Departments of Energy and Transportation, are saddled with the phenomenal responsibility of designing a "safe" panacea for the legacy of their predecessor's atomic Frankenstein. No small task, indeed.

Perhaps these men, in their infinite logic, regard Yucca Mountain as the perfect location to dump all the world's radioactive rubbish. After all, following over 1,100 atomic detonations, this once-sacred and breathtaking landscape has already been rendered godforsaken and contaminated for generations to come.

As a proud US Army Veteran and concerned American citizen, I feel compelled to ask a few burning questions should the Yucca Mountain dump site, as is Mr. Miller's desire, receive the big thumbs-up ...

Who will ultimately be responsible for the collection of all this scattered and deadly material? Who will absolutely guarantee its safe transportation through the backyards of the United States to Nevada? What task force will oversee its subsequent decent burial? How can it be totally insured that such a gargantuan, concentrated, and dangerous endeavor in no way suffer from natural catastrophe, human error, terrorist hi-jacking, or the Chaos Theory in general?

Can we not, with all our brilliant scientific technology, devise some other alternative? Would not the alleged under-financing of such research be easily fueled with what it costs to produce a single hydrogen super-bomb? It strikes me as totally insane to further jeopardize humanity by disturbing, harvesting, and delivering this unholy mess into what Mr. Miller offers as the final, if speedy, solution.

Laura Lee MacMahon
Seattle, Washington

Note:New York Times Editor, Howell Raines, chose not to publish my letter. Mr. Raines was also fired from his New York Times Editor post in 2003 for being "as self-infatuated as Jayson Blair." Heh ...

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