Editor,

News of radioactive water at Fukushima to be dumped into the Pacific Ocean is alarming. Reports say that while the radioactive water is being stored in tanks at the site, already thousands of liters have leaked into the Pacific Ocean.

Our beloved Pacific ocean that our livelihoods depend on is becoming a nukes waste dump. If over fishing isn’t already depleting the Pacific now nuke wastes will contaminate whatever else is remaining.

This is totally unacceptable. Nuclear power is dangerous, dirty and expensive as has been proven by atomic bombs, and the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. The warnings of Chernobyl were clearly not heeded.

We must all raise our voices and fight vigorously against nuclear power because the risks are long lasting, incalculable and intolerable to the environment and to humanity. The costs are too great when considered and include insurance, the cost of potential accidents and the long-term disposal of waste when no reliable solution has yet been found. But who can calculate the costs of the damage done to our genes, the very foundation of life?

The only solution is to halt the expansion of all nuclear power, and for the shutdown of existing plants. When will governments stop protecting the profits of the nuclear industry and instead make protecting people its priority?

Nilesh Goundar

<ngoundar [at] gmail [dot] com>