[ RadSafe ] Perceived vs. Real Risk

[ROY HERREN]

   It's interesting that I didn't hear about this story down in the San Francisco bay area.  We also have a Tesora Corp. refinery here.  In fact I have a friend who works at the refinery.  I suppose that one of the reasons that this story didn't get as much news air time as it might otherwise have been afforded was because of the in depth news coverage of the coal mine explosion in West Virginia that resulted in such a horrific loss of life.  When I heard about the coal mine explosion and I thought about all of the collateral issues surrounding the mining and use of coal, my immediate thought was that we really need to push for progress on man made Fusion.  No doubt it will be decades, if ever, before man made Fusion is a viable source of energy.  In the mean time we will need currently viable sources of energy to carry us through the interim until man made Fusion energy is available.  No doubt that nature's Fusion plant, the Sun,
 will provide a large part of our needs.  The Sun was the initial source of all of the energy locked up in the energy storage devices that we already utilize, be they coal, natural gas, all of the hydrocarbons, etc., it is the source of the hydroelectric energy and wind energy, and obviously it is the source of photovoltaic energy.  We will have to use all of those sources and Nuclear Fission to get us through the interim time span.  If I understand the issues correctly , even the fuel that we use for our Fission Reactors was initially formed from a star that went super Nova billions of years ago.  The very planet that we live on is a coalescence of matter from an ancient star.  I can't imagine a subject matter that is more important to our past and our future that needs to be researched than Fusion!  Are any of us under the illusion that Fusion research and development gets any where near the funding it needs and deserves?
 Roy Herren 




________________________________
From: "Earley, Jack N" <Jack_N_Earley at RL.gov>
To: "radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu" <radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Mon, April 5, 2010 9:46:13 AM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Perceived vs. Real Risk

Or under-regulation vs. over-regulation. People worry about an imaginary cancer risk from potential radiation exposures, but don't give a second thought to the real risks they're exposed to every day.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011514739_apusrefineryfire1stldwritethru.html?prmid=obinsite




Jack Earley
Environmental Integration
Radioactive Air Emissions, Radioactive Waste Management, & Quality Assurance
509.376.3667  Fax 509.376.8029

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