"The earth contains radioactive elements quite well, and for longer than 10,000 years."
While true, this makes no sense as a justification for nuclear power. The earth contains radioactive elements well when they have been put there by natural processes rather than in locations convenient for humans (desolate) in concentrations convenient for humans. Even without this consideration, the earth contains radioactive elements well *without* regard for resources our societies intend to use in the future. Containment by the planet often does not necessarily include prevention of groundwater seepage. "The Government's best efforts are not at YM Nevada, they are at Carlsbad, New Mexico, where a waste repository has interred thousands of shipments of transuranic waste since it began operations almost ten years ago." I understand that the point you were originally making was that waste storage hasn't been a complete failure as it is often viewed, but I think that proving it with 10 year storage (though the best information we may have) is not effective. Even as someone who has mixed feelings about nuclear, I would be very difficult to convince with ANY study that we have managed to store nuclear waste sufficiently because there will never be a time period in my life long enough to prove it - recorded history isn't even long enough for that. Further, with the range of alternatives now available for power, the storage debate ought to raise the question of why we should consider using a power source with detrimental byproducts at all. -Nick On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Don Libby <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: "Eric Swanson" <[email protected]> > Newsgroups: gmane.science.general.global-change > To: "globalchange" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:30 AM > Subject: [Global Change: 3072] Re: The staggering cost of new nuclear power > > > Besides, coal plants capture > >most of the particulate emissions from the exhaust stack, which would > >also tend to capture the uranium as well. > > And what then? > > >We are in Iraq because the supposed threats > >of WMD, such as "dirty bombs". The "dirt" in the dirty bomb was the > >highly radioactive component of nuclear waste, i.s., plutonium. > > The term "dirty bomb" does not refer to fallout from a nuclear device, it > refers to a small explosive device to which some radioactive material (like > cesium) has been added to increase its value as a terror weapon, not a WMD. > > >Given the threats presented by all those bad actors out there, does > >anyone really think that it would be possible to contain all those > >waste products with 100% perfection for 10,000 years? > > The earth contains radioactive elements quite well, and for longer than > 10,000 years. > > >Even the > >Government's best efforts at Yucca Mountain have not been worked out. > > The Government's best efforts are not at YM Nevada, they are at Carlsbad, > New Mexico, where a waste repository has interred thousands of shipments of > transuranic waste since it began operations almost ten years ago. > > > Let's hope we never find out whether > >the containment buildings are indeed strong enough to withstand such > >an assault.. > > We already have - it's been done. Nothing happend to the containment, but > the airplane was destroyed. > > Learn these interesting and important facts, and many more, by reading this > book by a one time antinuke: http://cravenspowertosavetheworld.com/ > > -dl > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
