From: Damien Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Fri Jun 01 2001 - 19:41:29 MDT
On Fri, Jun 01, 2001 at 07:50:22PM -0500, S.J. Van Sickle wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Jun 2001, Damien Sullivan wrote:
>
> > It would seem that logically an acceptable disposal of nuclear waste would be
> > to grind it up fine and spew it in the atmosphere, or dump it where we dump
> > coal fly ash. Which the ORNL page says is actually a good source of
> > fissionables, and not very guarded...
>
> Ummm...no. The nuclear waste is not considered as "released into the
> environment" in the calculations you cite. Nor should it be, since it is
> not, unlike the waste products of petroleum burning.
Ah, you're right. They say radioactivity from coal plants is 100x the
population exposure from nuclear plants, which is with nuclear waste
contained. So we can't be more cavalier about nuclear plants, as I implied.
We still should be much less accepting of coal plants, at least without
thorough filtering of the emissions and recycling (mining, really) of the ash.
-xx- Damien X-)
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