Re: Nuclear waste needs a home . . . someplace

["Ted Rockwell" <tedrock@cpcug.org>]

>. It would be good to get some letters congratulating
the editor for getting it right.

Otto:

The writer's heart was in the right place, and that deserves kudos.  But I
don't think we should buy the idea that it is dangerous to leave the waste
right where it is--for decades, if necessary.  Or to make other, simple
arrangements.  Even some leading anti-nukes (e.g. Cochran of the NRDC) have
agreed that there is no safety issue here.  The utilities are correct that
there are legal and financial problems, and they should be resolved.  But
why leave our fate in the hands of DOE??

I see no reason to get all that stuff on the road to Nevada, with protesters
throwing themselves in front of the trucks, and the people carrying out the
operation (DOE) having announced that they will kill many people by the
trivial radiation doses to by-standers.  DOE and NRC are also saying that it
is not clear that the Yucca Mtn specs can ever be met.

Until we get that settled, we should not move a thing.  Moving the fuel
while continuing to advocate LNT and limitless ALARA will cause chaos.
Let's set a reasonable spec, and then decide what to do.  I see no reason to
put it under ground--and lots of reasons not to.  We've set ourself an
unattainable goal--and an unnecessary one.  We should set a reasonable spec,
then develop a program to meet that spec.  It's a simple engineering
problem.  If we can dispose of and store large quantities of poisons with
infinite half-life, it should be no more difficult to handle small
quantities of poisons that eventually die out.

This is not a question of "what the public will buy."  We can't expect the
public to feel good about radiation while we're pushing LNT and ALARA.
We've got to straighten out our mess, before blaming it on the public.  We
may have trouble getting the public to buy the new story, but I've always
argued, "When all else fails, try the truth."

Ted Rockwell

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