Former N.M. representative and chairman of the Carlsbad mayor’s nuclear task force, John Heaton said the Holtec International facility’s opponents (“Nuke waste project planning enters next phase,” Aug. 1) are “emotional” and “non-factual.” This poorly conceived push to bring the nation’s spent fuel rods to an “interim” facility, hoping some corporate or governmental agency will return in a century to remove them to a theoretical permanent repository, is where facts are ignored.

I challenge Heaton to talk with me about the region’s hydrology/geology; escape pathways; health effects of exposure; inadequate cask design; the fanciful transportation plan; the history of corporate and government victimization of populations of color; and the legal requirements that Holtec fails to meet.