I am opposed to using my ratepayer money to subsidize a study for Energy Northwest (Formerly WPPSS or “Whoops”) to start developing small modular nuclear reactors.
First, this idea seems to be getting rushed through without enough public attention or comment. That raises my suspicions right there. Second, WPPSS already stuck the taxpayers of this state once before with huge expenses when nuclear power failed, causing the second-largest municipal bond default in U.S. history.
Third, they are justifying nuclear power to help get us off fossil fuels, but this is a false argument. We still have no way to safely store nuclear waste, which can remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. So to build multiple plants that will create more such waste will only substitute one type of environmental poison for another.
We need to find solutions that work in concert with nature, not ones that destroy it. I suggest you review the website https://www.drawdown.org/, which has many practical, science-based ways to both conserve and create energy to meet our needs in a much safer and responsible manner.
