Many of you know that I have been writing a lot of diaries for my Congressioinal candidate, Heather Ryan. However, after buying a copy of Wednesday's Paducah Sun and reading an editoral by David Cox, my efforts for Heather must take a backseat for the day.

This Op-Ed in the Paducah Sun seeks to do a very dangerous thing for us all. I will share some of it with you:

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A private firm may be prevented from converting 9,700 tons of scrap nickel worth millions of dollars at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant by one of the most destructive contaminants known: politics.

Chemical Vapour Metal Refining U.S.A. is ready, willing and able to convert a portion of the Paducah plant into a facility to recycle the nickel for industrial uses, such as electronic components. The recycling process eliminates radioactivity to background levels — that which would be found in a shovel of dirt from your back yard — but federal regulations restrict the use of recycled nickel to nuclear applications — which means the market is too small to make recycling economical. It’s not worth the investment.

Too bad. Nickel prices are high. In fact, the price had soared 600 percent from 2002 to 2007 before falling in the last year.

In 2000 the Department of Energy banned use of nickel from nuclear processing plants for fear it would wind up in dental braces and cooking utensils. How much more logical it would be to restrict the use of recycled nickel according to measurable levels of radiation.

Growing international demand creates a huge market for recycled nickel. In fact, other nations, especially the Chinese, are already way ahead of us.

I am sorry Mr. Cox, but the contaminants in nuclear waste is a hell of a lot more destructive than politics ever thought about being. Even the politics of the failed Bush Administration. What Mr. Cox fails to mention is that Chemical Vapour Metal Refining U.S.A. is not the only entity that seeks to purchase this material. There are many foreign entities that would love to snatch this material up and smelt it into other materials, selling it back to us as imports.

Since Mr. Cox seems to admire the Chinese so much, does he really believe that they would take as much care as Americans to make sure contaminated products didn't reach our consumers? Are they not the ones that sold us toys for our children tainted with lead poison?

Of course our Congressman, Exxon Ed Whitfield is all for this dangerous proposal. He would allow the sale of this material to the highest bidder, which could be anyone, and how can we be sure they will follow the rules in reusing it? Whitfield cares little, as long as it produces a profit:

The Department of Energy needs to relax its outdated and needlessly stringent regulations. Rep. Ed Whitfield has taken up the cause. If the DOE refuses, it owes Paducah a reasonable explanation — and fear of powerful lawmakers under the thumb of environmental organizations won’t fit the bill.

Outdated, needlessly stringent? We are not talking about crops or cars here, we are talking about Nuclear contaminated, radioactive nickel!! Whitfield and his lackey David Cox act like this is Tickle Me Elmo dolls!!!

If you never read a Ryan for Kentucky diary, if you never support my candidate or our campaign, I simply need your help with this one. Some things are bigger than profits and jobs and this is one of them.

We only have until July 16 to let them know that we do not approve of the sale to the highest bidder of this dangerous material. Please, contact the DOE and let them know how you feel before it is too late, and we risk having this dangerous material sold back to us in many different forms.

United States Department of Energy
Oak Ridge Office, SE-32
200 Administration Road
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
Phone: (865)576-0273
Fax: (865)576-0746

Next, let Exxon Eddie know that the sale of this material is unacceptable to Americans everywhere:

http://whitfield.house.gov/contact/index.shtml

Some things transcend politics and profits, and this is one of them. Tomorrow, I will be asking you to support Americans for Ryan, today I am BEGGING you to help us stop this dangerous sale!!