Sen. Bob Bennett proposed that we build 100 new nuclear power plants by 2030, 21 years from now. ("Bennett: U.S. needs 100 more N-power plants," Tribune , June 23). Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi was stumped why anyone would oppose such a construction blitz.

Here's why. One hundred large nuclear plants of 1,000 megawatts each would constitute a generating capacity of 100,000 megawatts. It costs an estimated $8 a watt to construct nuclear plants today, so the total estimated cost would be around $800 billion! Divide this by 21 years, and this requires an annual expenditure of around $40 billion. Divide this by the 300 million people in America today and you have a cost of approximately $130 each year until 2030 for every man, woman and child in America.

Why do we need this large expenditure for electricity generation? To meet the anticipated needs of the growing U.S. population (births plus immigrants). One of the benefits of stopping U.S. population growth would be the elimination of the need for all these proposed nuclear power plants and of the associated problems of waste disposal.

Albert A. Bartlett

Boulder, Colo.