Trust Yucca science on earthquakes

Contrary to your Friday editorial on the earthquake near Wells, the Department of Energy does not expect any resident of Nevada to “just trust” the department on the safety of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

That said, you should trust the decades of scientific research done by America’s leading national laboratories, as well as work performed by the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.

We share the concern about earthquakes. We live here, too.

Construction of the repository cannot begin until and unless the Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorizes construction. Later this year, the department plans to submit its license application for construction authorization to the commission. The NRC will conduct an independent, rigorous and thorough review and provide ample opportunity for Nevada and other interested parties to challenge the information in the application. The NRC will authorize the Yucca Mountain repository to go forward only if it determines the data and analyses in the application are correct, supported by sound science and demonstrate compliance with all applicable safety requirements, including the radiological protection standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

I invite your readers to learn more at www.earthquake.usgs.gov or the Nevada Seismology Lab’s Yucca Mountain frequently-asked-questions page at www.seismo.unr.edu/htdocs/ym-faq.html.

Russ Dyer

LAS VEGAS

THE WRITER IS A CHIEF SCIENTIST WITH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT.

Illegals and education

To the editor:

In response to the Feb. 20 letter to the editor by self-proclaimed “educrat” Adam Saywer:

In scolding the Review-Journal for its editorial on illegal immigrants in public schools, Mr. Sawyer fails to acknowledge that legal citizens are required to know English or the obvious connection between students’ inability to speak English and the fluency of their parents. He also fails to mention that birthright citizenship is available only to those who are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and that whether those who disrespect our country, our borders, our laws and us by entering the country illegally are subject to this jurisdiction in the sense that they deserve to have their offspring granted citizenship, is debatable at best.

Mr. Saywer also fails to draw any distinction between “illegals” and immigrants despite the fact that one’s legal and the other is not; only a difference like night and day.

Yet somehow, like his proclamation that all resident children are entitled to a taxpayer-funded education when the Review-Journal never so much as implied otherwise, to similarly insult Mr. Saywer would be woefully academic.

T. Townsend

LAS VEGAS

Missile defense

To the editor:

Your Friday headline on the article by AP writer Robert Burns, “Missile defense proved viable” is not only misleading, but is belied by the second sentence in the article: “Yet questions remain whether that success could be duplicated against a surprise, real-world attack.”

The only thing that the SM-3 has been able to shoot down to date is an object with a known trajectory, with weeks of preparation for the attack. In a real threat situation, the trajectory would not be known and there would only be a few minutes to respond. Plus, all the offensive target would have to do to defeat the SM-3 is kick out a few decoys or some chaff. These studies have been done in-depth since the ’60s with the same results.

A defensive missile system is a prescription for escalation of another Cold War, where the defense and the offense come up with new measures to counter each other, spending billions of taxpayer dollars in the process and accomplishing nothing.

Elwood Anderson

LAS VEGAS

More taxes, more taxes

To the editor:

We have elected all of these people who say they are leaders and deserve to lead us. Instead, all they do is whine and cry about the lack of money and that maybe we should raise taxes again, so soon after the largest tax increase in history.

Hardly anyone in government is talking about slowing the growth of the government pig.

Most of our so-called leaders sound like a bunch of sheep bleating, “More taxes, more taxes.” Please, elected officials and bureaucracies, show some leadership and come up with solutions other than getting into the wallets of those who sent you to office.

Kent Brewster

HENDERSON