For Three Mile Island Meltdown's 30th anniversary.

"Gee, ma, why are so many folks so scared of nuclear power?"

Well, for example back during the March/April 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, we "bit the nuclear bullet," chomped down hard! I remember those dark days quite well, and it's very fortunate for the eastern United States and Canada that the (well-documented) explosion of a hydrogen build-up which took place in Three Mile Island's #2's containment during the first few days of the meltdown didn't rupture that dome! This was a MAJOR worry for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials on-and off-site at the time. If the containment HAD been breached, (a not at all improbable outcome) the resulting release of about a billion curies of radioactive gases and particles (roughly equivalent to the fission by-products spread by a one-megaton nuclear blast) would certainly have been more than merely devastating!

More recently, the ongoning miserable safety record of the US nuclear industry has spoken loudly enough for intelligent people to comprehend the awful truth. For example, on February 15, 2000, radioactive steam was released into the atmosphere at the Indian Point reactor #2, located in New York state's Lower Hudson Valley region. The leak was caused by a breach in an aging steam generator. At first, the NRC claimed there was no release of radioactivity; the NRC later admitted that there was a leak, but said, as it almost always does, that the discharge posed no threat to public safety. Then there is the Vermont Yankee plant. As reported in a July 26, 2008 Rutland Herald article, headlined: "Study: Yankee Radiation up 30 percent," the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant is indeed releasing 30 percent more radiation into the environment since it increased energy output by 20% in 2006. Vermont Yankee also experienced an "embarassing" partial collapse of one of its cooling towers in 2007, even though that same tower had been inspected earlier in the year. And there have been several "near-misses" in the last thirty years, for example at Davis-Besse near Toledo, Ohio:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0307/S00060.htm

Not to mention the recent leakages of radioactive tritium at the Braidwood Generating Station in Braceville, Illinois and also at the aforementioned Indian Point Reactor # 2 located in Westchester Co., New York:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/national/17nuke.html

I hope these recent examples of environmental harm caused by nuclear fission powered recklessness will suffice as proof we should retain Wisconsin's construction moratorium! BTW, I deliberately focus on Three Mile Island because it was a PARTIAL CORE MELTDOWN right there in "river city," USA. A partial meltdown that led to the release of substantial radioactivity into the Harrisburg area's atmosphere and into the Susquehanna River. A near catastrophe that almost eradicated many thousands of lives in 1979, and may be responsible for causing thousands of cancers, up to this very day.

Nuclear fission reactors are a potential environmental calamity that could happen at any time. Consider the fact that many US reactors are nearing the end of their intended lifespans, and many appear to be lacking the necessary modifications and continual (and very expensive) maintenance required to make them even remotely safe. Nuke plants are enormously expensive to build and maintain and extremely dangerous to operate. Not to mention the almost insurmountable difficulties posed by the disposal of their radioactive waste. Such waste remains lethal for tens of thousands of years. It's in Wisconsinites' best interest to pressure Jim Doyle and the Legislature not to overturn our state's sensible 25-year moratorium on building new commercial atomic reactors. Anyway, how absurd and suicidal it is to think we need MORE nukes when solar, wind, geo-thermal and biomass are the safer, saner way to meet our reliable, renewable energy needs! America (and the world) need to stop playing around with the "nuclear-roulette revolver" before we experience yet another Three Mile Island disaster or Chernobyl catastrophe.

Check out: http://solartopia.org