Ward Valley Disposal Site

In response to your editorial “Before Leaping, Take a Good Look,” July 27:

The Ward Valley area, chosen as a low-level radioactive waste disposal site, is not ecologically unsound or dangerous to ground water as you and your anti-nuclear cohorts would have the public believe.

I would suggest that you pay some attention to the efforts of reputable groups like the Sierra Club, which participated in the site-selection process, and the League of Women Voters, which did an outstanding job of research during the selection process. You also condemn US Ecology for its Kentucky site without mentioning that US Ecology successfully manages the waste sites in Washington and Nevada.

The selection of Ward Valley is supported by thousands of pages of technical data and reports by recognized experts, individuals who by virtue of training, experience and education are considered to be authorities in their respective fields. Radioactivity is a natural and necessary part of life and carries less risk to our collective well-being than other, more readily accepted, lifestyle practices.

Those of us who are responsible for the safe use and storage of radioactive materials are very concerned about the potential consequences to the public health of not having this site available in a timely manner. Without this one site, radioactive waste will have to be stored at hundreds of urban and suburban sites throughout the state.

ROBERT McDERMOTT

Medical Radiation Physicist

Sylmar