Say no to the AEHI nuclear plant

Dear editor:

AEHI wants to build a "merchant" plant which sells power to the highest bidders. Unless Idaho out-pays California (not likely) all this power can be sold out of state while our citizens pay the price.

This price includes not only storage of poisonous nuclear waste on-site, but the emission of low-dose radioactivity which occurs in all nuclear power plant operation. Additionally, we will have to deal with the adverse affects of this nuclear plant on the Snake River and the fish and animals around the only water source in our desert environment.

None of this takes into account the possibility of nuclear leaks. Last year the BBC reported (summer 2008) that there had been a 10-fold increase in the number of nuclear leak incidents reported by people working in the French nuclear power industry.

An independent monitoring body said that this type of contamination was a recurring problem and that so many people had been affected in such a short period of time it was a concern." In the US there have been at least eight leak "incidents" of contaminated water from nuclear power plants in the past decade. At the Exelon-owned plant in Illinois, several million gallons of tainted water leaked, showing up in tritium-laced drinking water in 2005.

Though nuclear energy industry officials like to tout the relative safety of their plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revised their emergency preparedness for a nuclear "incident" in 2001 saying states should have on-hand, for anyone living within a I 0-mile radius of a power plant, potassium iodide tablets to counter the effects of exposure to radioactive iodine which is indicated in thyroid cancer.

In 2003 the National Academy of Science issued a statement saying potassium iodide should be made available to people living near nuclear power plants.

AEHI has compared their proposed "merchant" power plant to any other industry in Idaho that uses state natural resources to sell products outside of the state, including farmers and agri-business. But there are thousands of Idaho farmers that benefit financially from the merchandizing of Idaho natural resources without hazardous risks of nuclear power. AEHI is a development company that's willing to put their nuclear plant in our backyard for their own financial gain and we must say no.

Nate Jones

Glenns Ferry