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I was born in 1960 in Buffalo NY, I attended Barker Central School through 1971, Newfane High School to 1976 then Graduated from Iroquois High in 1978. I Joined the US Navy in 1978, Graduated Nuclear Power School class 80-01, Prototype at MARF, served aboard the USS Grayling SSN 646 and the USS Skipjack as a reactor operator. I recieved an honorable discharge in 1986 and lived in Miami Fla, worked at Coulter Electronics for a year before being hired at the R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant, where I still work as an I&C technician. Nuclear power, I believe is the best, safest, most reliable, current technology to provide energy. The plants operating now are safe and the new designs are even safer.
Building 100's of new nuclear power plants would improve the economy, reduce or eliminate dependence on foreign oil, create jobs, reduce pollution, and provide for future technological advancement.
I have been working with nuclear power for about 30 years, I would be glad to have a Nuclear power plant or high level waste disposal facility in my community. My family and I live in a home within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant. (where I work) I have a great understanding of the risks involved and am completely comfortable with a plant "in my backyard". I have confidence that my grandchildren's grandchildren will be smart enough to treat the nuclear "waste" as a valuable resource or at least smart enough to handle it safely . If the cavemen thought their children would be too stupid to use fire safely, where would we be now?
Using Chernobyl as a reason not to build is like saying because of the Hindenburg I will never fly in a commercial airliner.
Nuclear power has the smallest environmental impact of any current energy production method per unit of energy produced. One fuel pellet about the size of a pencil eraser produces the same energy as about 1 ton of coal, and if reprocessed 2/3 of what's left can be reclaimed. Nuclear power is our best option for reliable, environmentally friendly base-load electrical power.