by David Safier
Atomic Al Melvin has worked on his pitch to sell a nuclear waste dump to Arizonans. He's always claimed it's all about funding education. Nukes for schools. But now he's got a name for it: The Arizona Energy-Education Fund. [Note: the story is in the Capitol Times, a subscription only website.]
No "Atomic" in the name. No "Nuclear." Just "Energy." Don't want to scare anyone now, do we?
Bring a nuclear waste dump to Arizona, Melvin says, and it will mean $100 million a year for public schools. Isn't that great? Starve public schools, then throw them a nuclear bone and hope they bite on it.
Melvin knows it's going to be a hard sell, but he figures he's got a partner: the education community.
“We want to move on several fronts. We want to continue our outreach to the education community and try to get them to join us as partners in our coalition,” said Melvin, R-Tucson. “They’re the beneficiary of the fund, but they’re also going to help us educate the voters.”
Educators aren't exactly thrilled with the idea, but those who are quoted in the article aren't completely dismissive either. I hope that's because the educators don't feel they're educated enough on the subject of nuclear waste to give the reporter a definitive answer.
Melvin is hoping he can "educate" the educators, then have them help "educate" the rest of the state. Because, Melvin assures us, the nuclear waste dump would be perfectly safe.
“We have to educate the citizens of the state that this is safe and sound and state-of-the-art technology,” Melvin said at the stakeholder meeting.
"Safe and sound and state-of-the-art technology." Like Three Mile Island. Like Fukushima. Like Chernobyl. What could possibly go wrong?
I hope no educators are desperate enough for funds to risk transporting nuclear waste across our highways and storing it for thousands of years in our desert. Educators are supposed to bring a glow to their students' faces, but not a nuclear glow.
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