Nuclear power could be the answer for Nevada

To the editor:

Sen. Harry Reid is all for renewable energy, but he fails to support nuclear energy because he buckled under years ago to the anti-nuclear activists.

He is out on a limb and can't get back.

The science has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. Nuclear power is cleaner, safer, more dependable and more economical than renewable forms of energy, yet our senator is still trying to convince us with the same old tired arguments that it is unsafe and unpractical. Just this year he managed to see to it that funding for Yucca Mountain was reduced by $100 million, and he solidified his position out on the limb by saying, "Yucca is dead."

Yucca is not dead. There is a groundswell of grass-roots interest in nuclear energy across the country and especially here in Nevada. Nevadans are beginning to understand the tremendous asset we have at Yucca. The Department of Energy over the years has set aside nearly $30 billion for the disposal and storage of spent nuclear fuel. Much of this funding could come to Nevada if our good senator would listen to the facts and come in off the limb.

Sen. Reid is in a position of power and prides himself on what he does for Nevada. But right now he is hurting Nevada. All he has to do is start to negotiate with the DOE and solicit the president's support. With that the jobs and revenue will start to flow to this great state.

Douglas Bradshaw

GARDNERVILLE

Skin color

To the editor:

It is with much interest that I have followed the case of the Connecticut firefighters seeking to obtain promotions. Can someone explain how a written standard test like they took could possibly be racially biased?

It appears to me that the decisions made by the New Haven officials all the way up to the four dissenting justices on the Supreme Court were in essence saying to minorities, "You are just too stupid to pass a standardized test, so it must be dumbed down in order for you to pass it."

This whole thing is one of the most blatant examples of political correctness gone completely amok we have ever seen. It is an insult and does nothing but hold back the progress of racial equality, because it continues to victimize minorities by implying they are just not quite up to the intellectual bar of whites.

What complete and utter nonsense.

Bettye Gilmour

HENDERSON