Our nation needs the benefits of nuclear power

In response to Don Grbac's July 6 letter, "Nix Nuclear Notions," I would like to point out two major issues. First, the waste products from nuclear power plants have never killed, or even injured, a single U.S. citizen, including the events at Three Mile Island. In contrast, the fly ash generated by coal power plants has more radiation than nuclear waste (Dec. 13, 2007, Scientific American) and studies show that more than 30,000 people a year die from the fine particulates released from coal-fired power plants.

Second, regarding his implication that burying the waste would somehow harm the environment: The facility being designed at Yucca Mountain will be able to isolate the waste effectively for hundreds of thousands of years (Yucca Mountain Environmental Impact Statement). This is based on good, hard science, not public fear-mongering or corporate profiteering.

Nuclear energy has been used since the 1950s and safely provides 20 percent of the electricity in the United States. Nearly 80 percent of the electricity in France comes from nuclear power. France generates so much that it is able to make nearly 3 billion euros per year from the export of electricity. Sounds like a good way to work on the national deficit to me.

NATHAN GERENCIR
Point Breeze

---

Transit possibilities

One major change in our lives would go a long way toward solving three major problems that we have: significantly increasing our use of public transportation. Ethanol is a public boondoggle. We have just begun to see the serious downside of this fiasco. The problems include the following:

1) How to reduce the demand for oil products;

2) How to reduce pollution caused by automobiles;

3) How to minimize the traffic jams for those people who still require the use of their automobiles.

To accomplish this would require intelligent expansion of our current public transportation system. By intelligent, I don't mean digging tunnels to nowhere under the river. Expanding our present "T" connecting the South Hills to Downtown is a good example of what we need. Imagine a "T" connecting Cranberry to Downtown using the HOV lane for restricted access. Imagine a "T" connecting the airport to Downtown. Imagine a local jitney service to the "T."

Such an endeavor would be expensive, but well worth it. It would require heavy subsidies. These subsidies could be diverted from highway expansion programs, which merely exacerbate the problem.

Also, there are too many trucks on the road. We should increase freight traffic by increasing the use of rail and use trucks for local distribution.

The energy problem is serious. We need a change.

C.P. ROONEY
Upper St. Clair

---

About the turnpike

Leasing the turnpike is a bad idea ("Turnpike Lease Plan Stuck in Committee," July 5). Only because of the present low value of the dollar is this a good investment for another country.

Would the Spanish company sell off the contract later and to whom? Over 15 years, the fluctuation of interest rates and market value may not return the anticipated profit. Would our turnpike workers be working for minimum wage in a few years?

There are too many unanswered questions for this to be a wise plan over such a long period.

CHRISTENE KELLY
Burgettstown

---

Timeless values

My husband and I would like to thank WQED for continuing to air "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

We're so happy to know our grandchildren will be able to view Fred Rogers' program on a regular basis, but what a shame on other stations if they do not do the same.

The way the world is today, children need Mr. Rogers' values on television and all the love he had to offer.

Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for being part of all our lives; we hope this will continue for years to come.

MARY ANN and TOM FEREZAN
West View

---

Start tuning in

The experts tell us that we have become half-minute attention robots when it comes to the reading of the written word. Our 100 mph lifestyles, our addiction to "multitasking" and major dependence on awareness-robbing electronic gadgetry have created a schism regarding our true purpose in life. We are being cleverly manipulated and pickpocketed (via wholesale distraction) of our innate ability to focus on the real reason we are here.

Thirty seconds are up, and for those of you still reading this, you are the fortunate ones who have come to realize that a dynamic change is coming; the world as we have known it is making a U-turn, imperceptible to those of us who are tuned out.

We are spiritual beings packaged in a human shell that is handicapped by our five senses, while our ultimate goal remains the same: to re-establish our relationship with our Creator. Awareness remains the crucial challenge in our efforts to reconnect.

Tune out the endless soul-snuffing distractions. Take a quiet walk, read an enlightening book, have a heartfelt conversation with an old friend, quiet your mind. It's a start, and in time, aided by steadfast determination, you might experience what the ancient mystics called the "hum of the universe," the voice of God if you will. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Don't get left behind.

FRANK B. HEASLEY
McKeesport

---

An easy target

Beth Klebacha's June 19 letter ("Look at All Factors") is right on target in saying there needs to be more research, both qualitative and quantitative, before urging Pennsylvania's return to mandatory helmet use by motorcyclists. I first rode motorcycles seriously in 1969, and I currently ride the Honda Shadow I purchased in 2004. I am a member of the American Motorcyclist Association (Pickerington, Ohio), where an excellent government affairs office can put the PG on the right track in pursuit of serious and unbiased scientific studies.

I wear a helmet, even to ride from the front of our house to the rear, because I prefer the risks brought about by helmet use (severely limited peripheral vision, reduced hearing awareness, high-temperature discomfort and the rare-but-real death sentence imposed by a basal skull fracture caused by a violently twisted helmet) to those inherent in having my thick skull meet one or another immovable object at any speed.

I would not permit anyone under my sponsorship to ride without a helmet and I very strongly advocate that others do so. Nevertheless, the choice is and should remain our own ... unless and until we decide to mandate helmet use for automobile passengers and drivers -- including law enforcement folk -- who often sustain head injuries in collisions.

The PG bristles when accused of promoting a "nanny state," but is quick to jump on a bandwagon that claims common sense as its source. I encourage the editors to look closely at the near total lack of enforcement by both state and federal agencies when it comes to helmets sold out of compliance with requirements. In that sense, helmet laws are akin to gun laws. The "little guy" is always the easier target.

JOE D. LAWRENCE
Eighty Four

---

With plentiful natural gas here, why are prices going up?

Color me confused about the price of natural gas going up. With oil, they sometimes say it's supply and demand; when that doesn't fly they speak in speculative tongue. No matter what, the price goes up.

In oil-producing countries, gasoline is less than a dollar a gallon. Why is it then that we in Western Pennsylvania, who are sitting on probably the country's largest natural gas supply, are being taken to the cleaners ... again?

With the cost of oil so relative to our crumbling economy and way of life, why can't oil and gas be temporarily taken off the volatile stock exchange and let the government transfer the natural resources to the refiners at a decent cost with a fixed price to the consumer?

The cost of everything is going up. Businesses can write it off, but they still pass the buck to the consumer. We wind up paying for everyone's extra costs. The middle class just can't take it anymore.

I can't wait for these natural gas prices to hit the consumer. I can only hope that there is a huge re-emergence of the rebellious '60s and the riots that changed the world. Unfortunately, many of those rebellious leaders from the '60s are now the corporate whores we need to fight.

The huge deposits of natural gas discovered in Western Pennsylvania need to be used to the benefit of the people of Western Pennsylvania, not the corporate and political money monsters.

TOM TOMKINS
Bethel Park

---