Re[2]: A real solution

[Vincent.King@doegjpo.com (Vincent King)]

     "'Unsolved Problem' Propaganda" is exactly on target - every time I 
     hear the incessant anti-nuclear mantra about how we don't have any 
     options for nuclear 'waste', I want to ask "Then what have we been 
     doing with it for the last 50 years?"
     
     This so-called problem is always portrayed as a burden on future 
     generations.  We have spent fuel now - how 'burdened' are we 
     because it exists?  I feel no particular burden when I drive by a 
     nuclear power plant, knowing there is high-level radioactive 
     material being safely handled inside.  Why will this be any 
     different in the future?
     
     And yes, the obstacles to waste storage are political, not 
     technical.  I defy anyone to depict a credible scenario where 
     significant doses to the public would result from any planned 
     approach that exists (and no, micro-rems or barely detectable 
     levels in groundwater miles from human usage don't count as 
     'significant' risks in my opinion). 
     
     We'd save more lives if we spent some of that money on making that 
     clean-burning natural gas that Al Gore favors a little safer to 
     handle. (And no, I don't want to eliminate the natural gas industry 
     - maybe just save it for better uses than burning it up as fast as 
     possible.)
     
     Vincent King
     vincent.king@doegjpo.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: A real solution
Author:  Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu> at Internet
Date:    8/22/00 9:14 AM




On Tue, 22 Aug 2000, Minnema, Douglas wrote:

>   Even with the cost of disposal included, the
> per kW-hour cost of nuclear was about the lowest of any viable option.

        --The cost of disposal for nuclear power is only 0.1
cents/KW-hour, even with all the political escalation, so this can never
be a consideration. It is this very low cost that allows all the
ridiculous attention to be paid to this problem. Before all this "unsolved
problem" propaganda took over, the cost was less than 0.01 cents/KW-hour. 

> 
Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu

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