Egat steering the debate on nuclear to its own ends

This reads like a press release put out by Egat, the Thai consortium that is hell bent on establishing nuclear for Thailand - whether the people want it or not.

Having a deputy director of Japan's Nuclear Technology Research Laboratory opine on nuclear energy is like having the president of Smith and Wesson opine on whether everyone should own a pistol.

Even Japan, a country which is richer and more technologically advanced than Thailand, has had nuclear power plant problems, most notably their largest reactor which was shut down last year after natural forces caused radioactive leakage. If mishaps can occur in a country with the highest safety standards in Asia - then mishaps (or worse) can certainly happen in Thailand.

If the Japanese expert quoted in the story were do some in-depth research he would find that large-scale solar power costs are on par with conventional power generation - and are cheaper than nuclear power production.

He then goes on to say that alternative power sources are not as easily transmitted or are not as reliable as mega-plant systems like nuclear. That's just not true. Existing power lines don't discern between electricity from one source or another. Electricity is electricity. DC is easily converted to AC. Solar has several means for storing power generated during daylight hours. The Japanese expert and Egat officials need to read up on the latest in "concentrated solar" - then they'll have a better idea of what's really going on in the fields of municipal power generation. A big shot American investor recently bankrolled a giant solar power plant in Texas. When environmentalists cheered his action, he told them "I'm not investing in this as a tree hugging environmentalist. I'm doing this because it's a smart way to make more money".

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai

Come fly the friendly,

fat-fighting skies

Re: "Heavy fliers should pay a higher fuel surcharge", Letters, June 21.

What the Frugal Flier may not have realised is indeed that he has come up with a magnificent idea that could not only benefit the airline industry but would certainly benefit a very large amount of the flying public. Clearly, to the dismay of some of the public, he has the audacity to suggest and declare that the fat passenger should indeed be paying his fair share for the fuel surcharge and that such charge be based on his weight.

I do think that the world's airlines, and in particular the American based carriers, should heed this advice. It would help the environment, the maintenance crews of airports (who would have much less volume in the toilet tanks if passengers relieved themselves way before checking in to lighten up for the scales), and their passengers (the thin ones clearly) if we had such a structure.

Why, you may ask? Arriving at an airport with two carry-on bags and three for check-in, the family of three would be put on the luggage scale. Here, all the weight determined would be translated into a simple formula (Bt85 per kilogram) and charged accordingly. Incidentally, I am about 8kg overweight but find this a great idea. Now then, the family has three members and five bags containing (all the clothing you don't need for a three-day trip to Phuket) and weighing in at a whopping 75kg. The bags should be charged, as well as the little girl, (12kg) mom 90kg and dad 150kg. Thus, the total charge, based on the combined weight of 327kg amounts to only Bt27,795.

Although it appears that I may be joking, in-fact I am not.

The consumption of jet fuel is a function of how much weight the aircraft has to carry. The more weight, the higher the consumption and thus the amount of pollution created by an airliner. It is simply a question of having a lobby group say "air passengers against fat" just like "no smoking in public places". If indeed the overweight passenger has to contribute more, he may shun the McDonalds. KFC and the like and both the Frugal Flyer as well as I would be subject to ridicule, but why not… all in the interest of a healthy environment and happy passengers. It would be nice for once to sit next to a skinny person who does not smell of French fries.

George Huels

Bangkok

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