Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Tue, Mar 3 1992 Date: Tue, 3 Mar 92 06:00:08 EST Message-ID: 03-03 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update March 3, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Tuesday morning in USA TODAY: Energy; Mail. TODAY'S DEBATE - NUCLEAR POWER: USA TODAY'S OPINION: Democratic presidential hopefuls are getting good mileage from jabbing Paul Tsongas for writing that the nation eventually will have to rely significantly on nuclear power. Any public discussion of this controversy, which concerns so many so deeply, is all to the good. But, as Tsongas says, a range of mountains must be scaled before anyone powers up the next generation of reactors. Among common-sense precautions: Above all, there must be a site or sites able to contain high-level nuclear waste for the thousands of years it remains hazardous. Current projections say that's can't happen at the planned site in Nevada before 2010; and experts should agree on how to build next-generation reactors. Standard design can reduce chances of disastrous construction errors and make operation easier and safer. Most experts already concur that plants should be engineered to turn off before reaching meltdown and be half the size of today's reactors. But they agree on almost nothing else. The public, which has forgotten neither Chernobyl nor Three Mile Island, has every right to expect such consensus. ... Someday, shortages or environmental concerns may mandate more reliance on nuclear power, even though it's the most dangerous energy source. But to rush that day, and to ignore all the common-sense problems that must be resolved first, is to court disaster. OTHER VIEW: PHILLIP BAYNE, president of the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness: Department of Energy studies show that, to sustain our standard of living, the USA will need about 200 new, large power plants by 2010, even with big gains in conservation. ... EC nations get more than one-third of their electricity from nuclear energy and expect to increase that to meet carbon-dioxide reduction targets. Japan recognizes that it needs nuclear power to assure its economy can't be held hostage by oil-producing states. With nearly 30% of its electricity from nuclear power today, Japan is now building the first of the American-designed advanced nuclear-energy plants. The designs are stamped "Made in the USA," but the first beneficiaries will be in Japan. Unless we move forward with new nuclear plants ourselves, we may again give up the technological and economic edge to our toughest competitors. ... Nuclear power's opponents have shrewdly used waste disposal as an argument to stop nuclear energy. But scientists worldwide agree nuclear waste can be safely isolated from our environment for the thousands of years deemed necessary. The technology is no mystery - it exists today. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON VOICE MAIL: PITTSFORD, N.Y., Misty Van Devate, 23, sales representative: I don't feel that voice mail is very customer oriented or very personal. It shows more respect for customers to let them talk to a person instead of to a machine. When they keep you waiting, after a while you get totally annoyed and hang up the phone. OAKLAND, Calif., William Wong, 50, journalist: I am slightly put off by them because it's sometimes difficult to get through to the party whom you are trying to get. Technology is wonderful but, if it doesn't work for you, then how wonderful can it be? PALMER, Alaska, Andrea Carmen, 41, Indian rights organizer: I'd rather have a person answer. I don't like voice mail where you go through a series of pushing buttons and a long series of relationships with machines. I don't really like talking to answering machines, but we have one on our phone. CHICAGO, Ill., Tim Fanning, 37, company president: I need to make quick decisions on a day-to-day basis, but it's hard to get my questions answered if I keep running into voice mail. The ones that work are those that give you options. But often those options are other voice mails. COCOA, Fla., Jesse Grubbs, 20, custodian: I get frustrated because you have to wait until it gets to the one you want. It is frustrating when, instead of an operator getting on the phone and directing you to the one you want to talk to, you get a machine. There have been times when I've just hung up. Issues & Debate Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM