Tom Henry's Oct. 3 "On the Environment" column, "NRC stalls key repairs for 32 years," errs in its depiction of thenuclear energy industry's actions to ensure that reactor core cooling systems will continue to operate during hypothetical situations that have not occurred in more than 3,500 U.S. reactor-years of operating experience.
Mr. Henry speculates that the industry "apparently" believes in putting off enhancementsto the containment sumps that are part of the defense-in-depth design of nuclear power plants. In fact, the industry over the past decade has spent about $1 billion analyzing a multitude of sump-clogging scenarios, testing alternative designs to increase the size of the sump strainers, and making modifications.
Strainers at every one of the nation's 69 pressurized water reactors have been enlarged to an industry median of 4,000 square feet from the original median of 150 square feet.
Given this considerable investment to increase safety margins at nuclear power plants,the industry believes it serves no practical purpose to devote additionalresources in this area.After many years of attention, this issue issafely resolved.
John Butler
Director
Engineering & Operations Support
Nuclear Energy Institute
Washington, D.C.
Keep effective incumbents
Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich pretends to be for the common man, while he's out to kill the unions that made this country great and hires actors to portray the unemployed.
Gov. Ted Strickland did not create the jobs crisis and he alone cannot solve it. Mr. Kasich has no idea how to rescue anything but his campaign.
Rich Iott plunders his own funds to inundate us with ads, phone calls, and surveys while vying for face time. Meanwhile, Rep. Marcy Kaptur is approachable and available to her constituents and effective in Washington, where Mr. Iott would be a freshman fish out of water.
Gina-Marie Kaczala's candidacy for Lucas County auditor is a farce. She couldn't be bothered to pay her own property taxes. Anita Lopez has done a wonderful job of cleaning up the mess that Larry Kaczala left behind.
Keep our dedicated, tenured, and effective people in office.
Susan Carey
Hogarth Road
Professionalism leads to votes
I had an issue settling my father-in-law's estate that required a visit to the Lucas County Auditor's Office.Anita Lopez personally assisted me. It was a pleasant surprise to have a problem resolved professionally, quickly, and efficiently.
Gina-Marie Kaczala can boast about her 21 years of experience, but that means nothing if the auditor's office is more efficient now than it was during her employment there.
I did not vote for Ms. Lopez before, but I will now.
Larry Green
Brookpoint Road
Who embraces roles they depict?
Is Rep. Marcy Kaptur's education so lacking that she assumes Rich Iott's past historical re-enactments of Civil War, World War I, and World War II battles mean that he believes in evil ideologies ("Debate ignites a new battle for Iott, Kaptur: He blames her for Nazi ruckus, she declares he's responsible," Oct. 12)?
Does any reasonable person assume that the annual Wildwood Metropark Civil War re-enactment includes pro-slavery people dressed up as Confederates? Of course not. Miss Kaptur, stop slandering a good man.
Liz Strang
Sylvania
'Hogan's Heroes' actors didn't run
Thank goodness Hogan's Heroes actors Werner Klem-perer and John Banner never ran for Congress.
Kevin Kelly
Oakdale Avenue
What was photo's context?
A picture of a congressional candidate dressed in a Nazi uniform, taken out of context?Come on, Rich Iott. You're kidding, right?Stick a fork in him, he's done.
Nancy Seybold
Berkeley Drive
Against Obama? You got my vote
By the Democrats' logic, if someone was in the play Faust in high school and playedMephistopheles, that means that person advocates devil worship. This type of character assassination is why good people don't go into politics.I don't care if the GEICO gecko wearing a Darth Vader suit is on the ballot.If he promises to vote against the Obama agenda, he's got my vote.
Pamela Tucker
Maumee
This year's silly season is worse
So Rich Iott does historic war re-enactments with his son and once played an SS officer. Is that really the best the Kaptur campaign and Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern can do? I was Batman for Halloween last year. I guess that makes me a vigilante too.
The political silly season is in overdrive this year.
Tim Riddle
Waterville
Unfair not to put in full day's work
If members of Congress wish to leave Washington early, then they should not get paid for the time they are gone ("Congress' early exit," editorial, Oct. 4).
Most Americans only get paid for the days they work. Some have sick days and vacation.
Congress is doing little to fix the job situation, yet lawmakers vote themselves a vacation extension. Voters should send them home, where they can stay.
Diane Zimmer
Defiance
Debate audience lacked decorum
The Kaptur-Iott debate on Sept. 27 was the most audience-biased event I've sat through in recent memory.
Cynicism for the views of Rep. Marcy Kaptur was loudly and rudely vocalized by audience members, and the moderator did little or nothing to restrain them. A mild rebuke was all that was deemed necessary, with the comment that their "enthusiasm" was appreciated.
I had always thought that the established rule of campaign debating was to allow each speaker to have his or her time uninterrupted by the audience. This was evidently not the rule followed in this televised debate.
The result was ugly and lacked balance between the candidates. Whatever your opinion of each one's point of view, fairness and respect are paramount.
The audience displayed little of this. It would have been better to advise members of the audience to vocalize their opinions at the polls where it is appropriate, not in a publicly televised forum.
Josephine Dresser
Oregon
Parents must help stop bullying
I am outraged about the bullying at Mentor High School near Cleveland that is believed to behind teen suicides there ("1 Ohio school, 4 teens dead by own hand," Oct. 11).
To help stop bullying in schools, parents must watch for signs. They must get involved with their children, talk to them, go to their schools, and join parent groups.
Read their social network sites. That's not snooping; it is being proactive.
Parents, you are in charge of your children. If your child is the victim or the one doing the bullying, get help.
Regina Reighard
Sylvania