Retort!

Your piece on "Nuclear Humanities" (Summer 1996) overlooked the intent of the Reno City Council to become a Nuclear Free Zone, comparing Reno's attempt to that of Bay Area cities that became nuclear free in the 80s only to support dumping bombs in Nevada. Reno is not becoming nuclear free to support dumping elsewhere in Nevada. The Nuclear Free Zone (NFZ) movement rises above the "not in my backyard" point-of-view to include the notion that the world is everyone's backyard. The NFZ movement stems from the desire of citizens worldwide to create a shift in energy policy to the use of resources that are sustainable, clean, and do not contribute to the materials to make nuclear weapons.

There are 4,500 Nuclear Free Zones in the world, including 104 cities in the U.S., and 20 Indian nations within its borders. Twenty-six countries have laws and policies at the national level. NFZs are places where a critical mass of citizens see the link between the commercial nuclear industry and the nuclear weapons industry. In many cases, the creation of Nuclear Free Zones has been fought at the grassroots level. In New Zealand and the Philippines, success at the national level has been due directly to the overwhelming appeal and success of local campaigns.

Citizen Alert has been working with the city of Reno staff to draft a resolution to create a Nuclear Free Zone which includes the principles of the NFZ movement, as well as some of prohibitions related to creating, storing and transporting nuclear materials, and locating corporations tied with the nuclear weapon's industry in the NFZ. Depending on the resolution or ordinance, NFZs can have teeth or can be symbolic. Whether Reno's declaration contains prohibitions or is more symbolic is yet to be decided by the City Council. But in either case the city is making a powerful statement in the direction of global disarmament and the increased use of alternative resources. As the first city in Nevada to declare itself a Nuclear Free Zone, the Reno City Council deserves a round of applause.

Lee Dazey, Citizen Alert Reno, Nev.

I'm so glad to read a paper that recognizes the importance of nuclear caution but none of your writers mentioned the stupidity of waste that will last 10,000 years! It will accumulate in the years to come. The earth will be completely "hot" and there will be no place for life of any kind (unless there is a new kind of life that lives on radiation). Why hasn't all generation of nuclear waste been stopped until the neutralization of it has been accomplished? The radiation left over after atomic power is created should be used, not dumped for future generations to dispose of.

Plastic, like disposable diapers, was beginning to build up in dumps until biodegradable plastic was invented. Recycling is a sensible approach to leftover material -- why not for atomic waste? Can someone give me an answer?

Carolyn Beaupre Virginia City, Nev.

Regarding nuclear humanities: I recommend Dan O'Neill, The Firecracker Boys, (St Martin's Press). It is a history of the AEC's Project Chariot, a major peaceful atom project to blast out a new harbor, etc. near Nome, Alaska.

While we all can support a global nuclear free zone, a "nuclear free zone" in Reno or Berkeley is a feel good, liberal waste of time and effort. The concept has no basis in political, legal, or technical reality.

By the way, we in northern Nevada and northern California were downwinders too. I can remember news items (and modest cautions to remain indoors) during the 1950s when a cloud from the Nevada Test Site was floating over Quincy.

Terry Simmons Reno, Nev.