Dear President Bush,

The proposed new nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is not in the public interest. The U.S. Department of Energy has not been able to show that the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain would be safe. The nuclear waste that would be buried there would remain dangerously radioactive for a quarter of a million years. Yucca Mountain will not solve our nuclear waste problem. The project will add to our problems by creating another, new, contaminated site.

The highly radioactive waste would also have to be shipped to Nevada, passing through as many as 45 states by highways and railroads, endangering millions of people enroute. Nuclear power plants were originally licensed to operate for 40 years. Now the old nuclear power plants are being re-licensed, allowing them to operate for another 20 years. The power plants should be phased out. As the parts and equipment age, they can malfunction and the radioactive waste is an enormous problem.

There is also a new terrorist threat that cannot really be ignored. A bad nuclear accident would affect thousands of people. The cost of a nuclear accident would be paid for by taxpayers, not by the nuclear power industry. Many people died immediately at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, and many more people have died in the years that followed that accident. Nuclear power plants can be phased out. The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump is not a solution to nuclear energy's problems, it is an irresponsible venture and not in the public interest. Nuclear power plants need to be phased out.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned