Hysteria over nuclear power makes no sense

Recent news stories reveal a senseless hysteria about the dangers of nuclear power. Some of the wringing of hands comes from the same people who decry our dependence on coal-generated power.

My father, a General Electric engineer, and I were following up a trout stream north of Schenectady, N.Y., one day in 1944. I was 15 and wide-eyed when we came to a massive granite wall across the stream, topped with barbed wire. The “Keep Out! General Electric Company” sign told me little. I asked my father, “What in the world is that?” I remember the answer, “If I knew Chuck, I couldn't tell you.”

It was a year before the atomic bomb was dropped over Japan, and the world learned how much of our scientific community had been engaged in atomic research. And the secret compound hidden deep in the woods was part of GE's search for peaceful uses for atomic energy.

Since that time, nuclear power plants have been constructed all over the country. And not a single life has been lost to accident of terrorist attack on these plants. And, by the way, Cedar Rapids and the Palo plant have not suffered from earthquakes or tsunamis.

Chuck Dunham

Deep River