No (more) nukes!

I want to thank the Bay Guardian, and specifically Matthew Hirsch, for the excellent articles "Duck and Cover" and "Jumper Cables and Shrink-Wrap" [both 9/14/05] on the dangers of nuclear power plants and the current politics about this issue.

It is important to realize the dangers from nuclear power plants: A standard 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor contains the equivalent long-lived radiation of that released by the explosion of 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs. The electricity generated comes at the expense of the production of that radiation. Indisputably, radiation induces cancer and genetic disease by causing the mutation of genes.

Radioactive elements are tasteless, odorless, and invisible. When they enter the environment, they concentrate at each step of the food chain – in an aquatic environment, in algae, crustaceans, and fish small and large; on land, in grass, milk, and meat.

Children and the elderly are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to the effects of radiation than adults are. The incubation time – that is, the time between exposure and the manifestation of symptoms – for cancer is 5 to 60 years. No tumor, though, appears with a "caused by" sign attached.

Furthermore, the effects of radiation are cumulative. Each dose adds to the risk of developing cancer or producing genetic disease in the offspring of those exposed to it. That's why we advise people not to have more medical or dental X-rays than necessary.

Then there is nuclear waste. Each year some 30 tons of thermally, radioactively hot nuclear waste, laced with highly radioactive elements, is removed from every standard 1,000-megawatt reactor and stored in inadequately protected cooling pools, awaiting final disposal.

Where will the government deposit the high-level waste from the nuclear power plants that it is now creating? This waste needs to be isolated from the ecosphere for thousands of years.

The simple truth is that nuclear power will contaminate America over time, inducing epidemics of cancer and leukemia, particularly in children, while increasing the incidence of genetic diseases in future generations.

I call on the citizens of California to stand up against nuclear power. Stop plans to extend the lifetime of already existing nuclear power plants and prevent the building of new ones. California is a wonderful state; we should make sure that our children will not live in a radioactive dump.

Helen Caldicott, MD President, Nuclear Policy Research Institute Matcham, New South Wales, Australia

Gary Fanger, good guy

I found your article regarding the current strike at Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center, and specifically Mr. Gary W. Fanger, to be not only very one-sided and out of date, but an incomplete view of what it really means to have nurses go on strike.

When nurses strike and/or otherwise walk off their jobs, they leave their patients uncared for, thus placing the lives of countless people at great risk. A shortage of nurses means a lack of patient care – plain and simple. If it weren't for people like Fanger, an alleged "scab master," who places nurses and nursing staff in positions where others have abandoned their patients, people would die. Children would die. Babies in NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] who require constant care would die.

Nurses strike for better pay, working conditions, retirement plans, etc., which all equate to personal security, while leaving their patients completely uncared for ... contrary to the definition of nurse.

Certainly, Fanger isn't the only "scab master" out there.... US Nursing is still operating, aren't they? Why is the focus "Fanger" and not the real story: "Nurses Strike – Patients Lives at Risk."

Further, I find it ludicrous that Fanger is being portrayed as a "deadbeat dad," especially considering the fact that he has a close relationship with all 11 of his children. He's current on all of his child support obligations, past and present.

Out of Fanger's 11 children, five are adults (one is a practicing attorney; one has recently completed law school and is currently studying for the Bar; two are college graduates; and one is still attending college). The six remaining children are minors, and out of those six minor children, three live at home with Fanger.

Margot Shinn Bakersfield

For the record

In the Sept. 14 live review of Skygreen Leopards, the band's drummer was misidentified. The drummer is actually Jasmyn Wong.

In "The Peace Movement's New Enemy" (9/21/05), we incorrectly identified Susan Morrison as a member of both United for Peace and Justice Bay Area and Code Pink. Morrison belongs to the former group but not to the latter. Rep. Nancy Pelosi voted in favor of 5 out of 6 Iraq spending bills identified as part of Morrison's research.