James Wells: Site 300 not as dangerous as writer leads us to believe

Re “Trump lackey will poison us” (Letters, Dec. 12): The writer worries that we will be poisoned by toxic nuclear materials at site 300, a separate part of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I would ask the writer if they are familiar with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, or for that matter with the operations at Site 300. The writer should know that it is forbidden for any type of nuclear material to be on Site 300, ever. All weapons research done at Site 300 centers around high explosives, therefore, nuclear material can never be allowed on site. The reason is obvious.

In regard to the DNFB, as noted by the writer, it was created by Congressional legislation in 1988 and is the law of the land. Only congress can eliminate it.

The writer should also know that since 1988, the DOE has created the Office of Enterprise Assessments which duplicates the DNFB function. Also of note, the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program has an exceptional safety record, but no independent nuclear oversight. I think Sean Sullivan may be correct in his assessment. He provides two proposals in his letter: One, elimination of the board, or, two, down-sizing. Either would be appropriate.

This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 4:42 PM with the headline "James Wells: Site 300 not as dangerous as writer leads us to believe."