Blaine Howard has no agenda other than the truth. He's been retired for almost seven years now. He worked for the state for 18 years and finished his career working for Envirocare for six years. That's the same Envirocare, by the way, that until yesterday was trying to get permission to bring in the uranium tailings from Ohio. But Blaine has no ties to the company. In fact, he remains a bit miffed that Envirocare hurried him into retirement before he was ready.

"I have no affiliation with Envirocare and I don't feel I was treated especially well by them," he says, "but I don't like to see them mistreated, either."

As for the dumping of nuclear waste in Utah, he has no stake in whether that does or does not happen. Couldn't care less.

What he does care about is the perpetuation of a public perception that is simply not true.

"I grew up as a poor farm boy (in Chester, Idaho)," says Blaine. "And then I had all these opportunities to learn and I believe, since this knowledge was given to me, I have an obligation to give it to the public so they won't have this terrible fear of something that's not dangerous and can in fact be beneficial."

He means no offense. He just wants to be on the record that the earth is not flat, so to speak. Just because something is nuclear doesn't mean it can hurt you.

---

Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.