The Kids Are Okay

Dear Madame L,

I keep seeing on the news about the nuclear reactor in Nebraska being close to being flooded as the Missouri River rises, and the plutonium facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico, being close to being burned by the wildfires there.

And the government keeps making these statements: "Everything is okay. You are not in danger. These facilities have been kept safe, and we have a plan..." Etc., Etc., Etc.

Do you think we're okay? And do you think are kids are going to be okay?

Sincerely,

Worried, Really Worried

Dear Really Worried,

Madame L thinks you are right to be very worried. Madame L is worried, too. Madame L remembers just a very short time ago the officials at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan reassuring the public that everything was okay there...and all of us finding out later that nothing was okay there.

Madame L thinks the people of Germany are so smart to have decided to close down their nuclear program. They're not buying into the false choice between nuclear and coal. They're not even making up fairy tales about "clean coal." Good for them. There's no such thing as clean coal. Coal is dirty. And nuclear is dangerous. The Germans are going to take care of their energy needs by a combination of renewal energy sources and improved efficiency. This is what Candidate Obama promised us in 2008 when he was running for president, and Madame L is disappointed at how his administration is caving to the political power of the U.S. energy and power industry.

Madame L hopes you will read the news reports saying that everything is NOT okay in Los Alamos, that everything is NOT okay in Nebraska because the berm that was supposed to keep the floodwaters away from the nuclear plant has been breached.

The last time the Los Alamos facility had a fire, smoke with radioactive particles went all the way into Texas, Oklahoma, and points east. Even the smallest amount of plutonium can cause cancer. Do you want to breathe that stuff? Do want anyone else breathing it?

Madame L has found a website where citizens can comment on the Department of Energy's proposal to build more nuclear energy plants.

Madame L has found another website with information about the dangers of nuclear power plants, including the one at Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.

Madame L urges all her worried readers to write letters, send email messages, and make phone calls to their elected government officials and appointed heads of government agencies, as well as the power companies, telling them that you want our kids to be okay. We don't want to keep hearing lies from the government about how our kids are okay. We don't want to be offered false choices. We want to know the truth and make good decisions about our future.

Keep worrying,

Madame L