From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Thu May 31 2001 - 14:05:29 MDT
In exchange for accepting the waste dump, the State of Nevada got all sorts
of goodies, including a Cray Y-MP for the computer science dept. of UNLV
A statistician friend of mind, when I lived in Vegas, was hired by the
federal gov't to produce a report assessing the probability of the waste
dump site ever being hit by an earthquake. Of course he predicted it would
be millions of years before an earthquake affected the site. Not trying to
be dishonest, I *guess* ... but an opposite conclusion might well have
resulted in him not getting any more grants...
A few months after he published his report, there was a
7-on-the-Richter-scale earthquake in California, which totalled the
buildings on the waste dump site.
Hmmmmm....
I love nuclear power, in theory. But I don't think that modern geoscience
is really up to the task of guaranteeing us that radioactive waste will be
effectively contained for long period of time in various burial sites. I'm
not saying that nuclear power is too dangerous to use -- but I *am* saying
that we can't trust the processing being used to assess its safety (academic
researchers on government grants, or worse yet, gov't employees).
--Ben
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of James Rogers
> Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 2:28 PM
> To: extropians@extropy.org
> Subject: Re: A voluntary Blackout?
>
>
> At 07:21 AM 5/30/2001 -0700, Brian D Williams wrote:
>
> >Everyone wants the benefits of nuclear power without the costs
> >involved. Placing the reactor as far away from the nearest
> >elementary school as possible is preferred. The 91.4-94.5 million
> >mile distance to the sun is acceptable for example. Locating a
> >nuclear plant outside a biosphere is a good idea.
> >
> >I agree with the protests we are likely to see from the residents
> >of the state of Nevada on this issue.
>
>
> The Nevada nuclear disposal site isn't necessarily a good example, as the
> situation is more complex there. I am more familiar with the Nevada
> nuclear repository situation than most people and have discussed it in
> detail with Nevada politicians on more than one occasions. In
> theory, the
> Nevada repository is as good an idea as any.
>
> First, the people of the state of Nevada object in principle to
> the Federal
> government forcing them to do *anything*, as the Feds have historically
> abused that ability in Nevada. Furthermore, they object because it is
> essentially a case of eastern politicians forcing Nevada to become the
> dumping ground for the hazardous waste they don't want to store in their
> own states -- strong-arm political tactics basically.
>
> Second, like most Americans, many people in Nevada display a knee-jerk
> rejection of anything "nuclear" without the slightest clue as to what the
> risks actually are. I personally don't have a problem with the nuclear
> waste storage facility in Nevada on scientific grounds.
>
> Third, because the Federal government and other states have so much
> invested in the nuclear repository in Nevada, it gives the State
> of Nevada
> a powerful political bargaining chip with which to obtain concessions on
> other issues (such as land use issues). The State of Nevada has
> been very
> successful in putting up roadblocks to the completion of the
> waste site and
> have the ability, using their power as a State, to delay the
> operation for
> decades even if the Federal government manages to ram it through. Given
> that the waste site is probably inevitable, the State is using the highly
> unpopular Federal project as a focal point of political power for
> Nevada on
> the Federal level and milking it for what its worth. Because the project
> is strongly opposed by both the Democrat and Republican parties in Nevada
> (for different ideological reasons), the Federal government has found it
> essentially impossible to undermine the resistance shown by the state on
> this issue.
>
> The Nevada protests have as much to do with politics and other unrelated
> issues as they do with the simple issue of nuclear waste storage.
>
> -James Rogers
> jamesr@best.com
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:07:52 MST