Re: Long-lived Radionuclides

["Jerry Cohen" <jjcohen@prodigy.net>]

Ted,
    Your argument that long-lived radionuclides are not uniquely hazardous
in comparison to stable toxic elements has previously been presented to
technical  and public groups as well as to the Congress, and has fallen on
deaf ears. Even our "friend", Senator Domenici, is touting the transmutation
of nuclear waste (one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard) which would be a
very expensive boondoggle and would actually increase whatever  hazard
there is in radioactive waste management. It is all predicated on the
concept that the long lived radionuclides constitute a hazard of
unprecedented duration. This concept is, of course, nonsense, but for some
reason it is so deeply embedded in the public mind that  it seems impossible
to displace it.  In case you have not already noticed, logic and reason do
not always prevail, unless perhaps they are advanced by a movie star or rock
band artist.


-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Rockwell <tedrock@cpcug.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Sunday, July 23, 2000 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: Mislabeling


>This approach to combatting anti-nukes is right on!  We should do it.
>
>But I think that the anti-nukes are not the real problem.  We're not going
>to convert them, whatever we do.  We should really be addressing the same
>people they address.
>
>And, I know you don't want to hear it again, but our message will always be
>vulnerable until we repudiate the nonsensical LNT/ALARA position that says
>that radioactivity poses an unnatural, unprecedented hazard.  (Why? Because
>radwaste has such a long half-life.  But, we have to remind people,
mercury,
>selenium, chromium, lead, et al. have infinite half-lives.  And we've
>learned to live with them, without turning the world upside down and
>backrupting ourselves in the process.)
>
>Ted Rockwell
>
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