COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	%business letter outline to use with buslet.tex macros
C00006 ENDMK
C⊗;
%business letter outline to use with buslet.tex macros
\magnification =\magstephalf
\input buslet[1,ra]
\def\disleft#1:#2:#3\par{\par\hangindent#1\noindent
			 \hbox to #1{#2 \hfill \hskip .1em}\ignorespaces#3\par}
\def\display#1:#2:#3\par{\par\hangindent #1 \noindent
			\hbox to #1{\hfill #2 \hskip .1em}\ignorespaces#3 \par}
\def\adx#1:#2\par{\par\halign{\hskip #1##\hfill\cr #2}\par}


\jmclet

\vskip 30pt
\address 
Wall Street Journal
220 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111

\body
Dear Editor:        

	The article by James L. Dooley and R. Philip Hammond
(WSJ June 11) indulges in wishful thinking.  They suppose that
one more improvement in the safety of nuclear power plants will
mollify ``public'' opposition.  They seem to assume that this
opposition represents the reaction of individual members of the
public to the situation as described in the media.  They suppose
that the public is incapable of taking a statistical view of
the relative risks of various human activities.

	This ignores the antinuclear movement.  Hundreds of
articulate people nationwide have attached their ambitions
to a fight against nuclear power.  No improvement in safety
will do anything other than generate counter arguments.
Dozens of politicians including the Governor of New York
have made promises to this movement on which they could
renege only at great political cost.
To both the antinuclear movement and the politicians
that support them the consideration that the use of coal instead of
nuclear energy kills more every year than the worst effects
of Chernobyl are entirely irrelevant.

	If one more safety improvement would lead NRC to
give up the evacuation plan idea, then local antinuclear
politics might be bypassed.  However, I doubt this will work
now.  A better idea for the future is to promise lower utility
rates to the immediate vicinity of nuclear plants and let
the towns and counties bid for them.

\closing
Sincerely,       

John McCarthy    
\annotations
\vskip 1in
JMC/ra 
%\smallskip
%Enclosure
%\smallskip
%cc: Matthew Kahn
%\smallskip
%\ps
%P.S.: whatever you wish to say here

\endletter

\makelabel
\end