Re: What Should We Do With Plutonium Once Nuclear Weapons Are

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

The chief
>problem is that I do not trust DOE and its contractors to design and manage
>such an operation.  For that matter, who CAN we trust to do it?
>

"DOE and its contractors" includes tens of thousands of people, not to speak
of a number of leading universities (like the University of Michigan where
the study I commented on came from), or were you under the impression that
universities don't have DOE contracts?  A broad-brush statement like the
above casts doubt on the work of many, many good scientists and engineers
and is one of those unsubstantiated accusations that simply does wholesale
damage.  It's popular right now, in certain circles, to dump on DOE and, by
extension, its contractors, and the anti-nukes love it and repeat it every
chance they get.  If you have specific evidence, make a specific accusation,
but it does you no credit to engage in generalized bashing, of DOE,
contractors, or anyone else.

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Pambo1@aol.com <Pambo1@aol.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thursday, August 10, 2000 9:28 PM
Subject: Re: What Should We Do With Plutonium Once Nuclear Weapons Are


>That is exactly what was proposed (making MOX with the plutonium) in a
report
>(Reactor Alternative Summary Report) for which I was the lead editor of
Vol.
>1 in 1996.  Vol. 1 explored the alternative of using existing light water
>reactors in the U.S. and was published by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems
for
>DOE.  The authors of Vol. 1 were S. R. Greene and B. B. Bevard.  (If you
>search on "Reactor Alternative Summary Report" at northernlight.com, hit
no.
>3 is the document I'm talking about.)
>
>The idea made sense to me:  considering all the time, money, and human cost
>that went into this plutonium, why not convert it to a form that would make
>it less of a security risk and then put it to some good use?  The chief
>problem is that I do not trust DOE and its contractors to design and manage

>such an operation.  For that matter, who CAN we trust to do it?
>
>Pam Gillis Watson
>DOE subcontractor worker
>Oak Ridge, TN
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