December 14, 2000 To the Editor, The Globe and Mail Kudos to Toronto Hydro and the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative for their plan to install wind turbines on the Toronto shoreline ("20-story windmill gets provincial okay", December 14). Future energy-supply discussions will be more meaningful when the public has seen this technology first-hand, and knows something of its operating experience. I object to the comment by Joyce McLean of Toronto Hydro, however, claiming that the true "pollution cost" of nuclear power is not reflected in our hydro bills. While this is certainly true of fossil-fuel plants, which deposit much of their waste products in our lungs, entirely the opposite can be said of nuclear power. In fact, as a scientist familiar the technology, I know that much of the cost of nuclear power is precisely due to the effort to keep all of its waste products, including radiation, contained at each plant site. Spent-fuel management and decommissioning is included in the price for each kilowatt-hour of nuclear electricity, as a simple query to Ontario Power Generation will tell you. We have clean sources, and we have very clean sources, of electricity. Despite popular perception it's not necessary that they be renewable to qualify. Sincerely, Jeremy Whitlock