Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email deisen@valleyadvocate.com and put “BackTalk” or “letter to the editor” in the subject.

Where Are Our Congressional and Military Leaders?

In response to “Between the Lines: The Nuclear Option is Not an Option” (Dec. 21-27, 2017):

It is scary to have an inexperienced bully with a knee-jerk personality with his finger on nuclear weapons, using terms like “FIRE & FURY” to N. Korea. Where are our congressional and military leaders?

Are they afraid to speak up?

PEACE,

—John Sheehan, website comment

Defunct Nuclear Reactor from the ‘60s is STILL Awaiting Cleanup

In response to “Between the Lines: The Nuclear Option is Not an Option” (Dec. 21-27, 2017):

Funds sought for U.S. Atomic Energy Commission cleanup at University of Arkansas nuclear site. Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor, referred to as SEFOR, located 20 miles southwest of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Most of waste taken away; reactor core removal awaits.

A project of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission along with a consortium of 17 electric utilities, SEFOR was only in operation from 1969 to 1972. The nuclear fission facility located in the unincorporated community of Strickler was powered with a mix of uranium oxide and plutonium oxide, a spent nuclear fuel by-product.

The reactor, built with funding from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, according to UA, never was hooked up to turbine equipment so no electricity was produced, but it did work as planned.

The site ceased operations in the early 1970s, with UA taking ownership in 1975 to use it for research. By 1986 the site fell out of use.

Solution: Send Arkansas nuclear waste to Utah, rather Utah-based Energy Solutions.

Dean Wheeler, project manager for Utah-based Energy Solutions, said about 16,000 pounds of material with some radioactivity, including extension rods used to handle reactor fuel when the site was operating, had been trucked away earlier in the month.

(Source: www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/dec/18/funds-sought-for-cleanup-at-ua-nuke-sit)

—Jeannie Presler, website comment

‘Mere sex isn’t worth it’

In response to the V-Spot column “How Do I Tell Dates I’m Heartless?” (Dec. 21-27, 2017):

My advice, ‘Heartless’: I’m in the same boat, lost the love of my life and have no interest in a replacement, and let me tell you, mere sex isn’t worth it. Indeed, it’s meaningless without love and commitment. Focus on yourself, and if someone comes along worth your love, let it happen. Otherwise, trust, there are FAR worse things then being willingly celibate 😉

—Wil King, Facebook comment