Editor, Gazette-Journal:

This is a rejoinder to the letter from Charles B. Thompson which was published in the April 8, 2021 Gazette-Journal.

He didn’t tell the whole story. According to Scientific American, the correct term is not “nuclear waste,” but “spent nuclear fuel” and U-235 is the only naturally fissionable substance.

In 1985, my high school Advanced Chemistry class went on a field trip to the Dow Chemical plant in Midland, Michigan, where we saw a small, 100-watt nuke reactor. The memory of that day with the memory of the Chernobyl accident of April 26, 1986 have probably faded from the imagination of my peers.

I was taught that the “K-value” (that is, the “equilibrium constant”) does not change even if there’s a nuclear reaction; however, it is very sensitive to changes in temperature.

I’m a 1985 alumnus of the Herbert Henry Dow High School in Midland, Michigan.

Charles N. GreeleyGloucester, Va.
...