orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (07/17/86)
> Although we > can no longer say no member of the general public has died from > commercial reactor operations the number is still quite small. Coal burning > is far and away the most destructive way to produce power. These same people > are not banging their drums about coal burning. > > Jeff McQuinn just VAXing around Obviously I cannot speak for all who oppose nuclear power but I can speak for myself and a vast gamut of Environmental groups. Probably the worst pollution currently being produced by coal-burning electric utilities is acid rain, which has already killed several lakes in upstate New York, and is beginning to kill lakes in Bear Mountain State Park, only 50 miles from where I live. In the 1984 election the Sierra Club and other environmental groups tried to point out to the American people the hazards of acid rain and Reagan's refusal to do anything whatsoever to clean it up. The answer from George Bush was that nothing would be done to clean up acid rain. (this was when he visited coal-mining regions in West Virginia) Reagan's answer was to have foto-opportunities taken beside the Chesapeake and commission yet *another* study of acid rain. To date there has *still* been nothing done about acid rain. (hooray for the foto-opportunity president!!!) As far as *safety* regarding the use of coal, the major cause of deaths in coal-mining are due to inadequate safety precautions in the mines and brown-lung disease. One of the first actions by the Reagan administration was to begin to dismantle safety enforcement by OSHA (The Occupational Health and Safety Administration). Safety inspectors were cut and they were told to be more lenient towards safety violations. I would like to hear from pro-nukers who oppose these actions. After all, coal still supplies far more power than nukes so that concern for safety *should* also mean concern for making the use of coal more safe. Or is it that arguments for the better safety of nukes really disguise a lack of concern about safety period? tim sevener whuxn!orb