Letters: The Faustian bargain of nuclear arms

Re “Hanford cleanup project raising doubts,” Nov. 30

Thank you for the detailed history of the attempt to contain toxic radioactive sludge, a by-product of our Faustian bargain. Nuclear weapons give us enormous destructive power at the expense of our environment, including drinkable water and land to live and grow crops on.

We, the taxpayers, are paying billions of dollars to Bechtel National, a corporation whose “34 instances of serious safety and engineering errors” have still not led to its removal from this project. Yet the scientific chief of the project who disclosed that the “innovative technology” Bechtel was proposing “for mixing waste in processing tanks could cause dangerous buildups of explosive hydrogen gas” was fired.

This article should be read by the leaders of all the countries that have nuclear ambitions. We all need to learn about the terrible price required for a weapon that cannot be sanely used because of its unlimited and uncontrollable destructive power.

Doris Isolini Nelson

Los Angeles

It would be the height of irony if, after all the concerns about being blown up by our enemies, we blew ourselves up.

Midge Bradford

Oxnard

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