Yes on Question Four

IF Question 4 fails, we will continue to have a factory of toxic waste festering in our backyard. A "Yes" vote on this binding referendum would close Massachusetts' notorious Pilgrim and Yankee Rowe plants, two of the most dangerous nuclear power plants in the country. Pilgrim is simply referred to by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the worst-run nuclear plant in the country; Rowe is the oldest in the country and called by the Union of Concerned Scientist one of the five most likely plants to have a serious nuclear accident.

The referendum says "there shall be no further generation of electric power by commerical nuclear power plants in the Commonwealth by means which result in the production of nuclear waste." Although the question covers all nuclear plants, the only ones that exist now are obsolete and dangerous; Question 4 protects the people of Massachusetts from this threat. If and when new technology is devised to ensure the safety of nuclear power generation, the citizens can consider overturning this referendum; until then, this is the safest way out.

Federal law requires that by 1993 each state using nuclear power must store their low-level wastes within the state at taxpayers' expense. Pilgrim and Yankee Rowe produce most of the low-level waste in this state. Because nuclear power depends on materials that stay radioactive for many years, the plants--which will eventually burn out anyway--will continue to cost taxpayers money long after they close. Closing them now would help reduce those costs. The Mass. Executive Office of Energy estimates that residents can save themselves $1.5 billion over the next 20 years by permanently closing Pilgrim alone.

Neither Pilgrim or Rowe has ever significantly contributed to the energy needs of state consumers, because neither has ever worked well enough to operate at peak efficiency. Rowe ran at reduced efficiency for more than three years recently due to equipment failures, and Pilgrim, which has never operated at a level better than 50 percent of capacity since it opened in 1972, has been closed for repairs since 1986. Much more efficient alternatives exist and are ready to take up the slack of closing these plants according to energy conservation groups.

Voters should be concerned about the dangers of nuclear power, and a "Yes" vote on Question 4 serves everyone's best interests by getting rid of the two most inefficient and worst-run energy plants in the country.