Re: "terrible problems"

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Private:

Franz Schoenhofer

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Phone: -43 699 11681319

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@chello.at



Office:

MR Dr. Franz Schoenhofer

Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

Dep. I/8U, Radiation Protection

Radetzkystr. 2

A-1031 Vienna, AUSTRIA

phone: +43-1-71100-4458

fax: +43-1-7122331

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@bmu.gv.at







-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Dukelow, James S Jr <jim.dukelow@pnl.gov>

An: 'Franz Schoenhofer' <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>; Thomas J Savin

<tjsav@LYCOS.COM>; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Montag, 06. August 2001 18:57

Betreff: RE: "terrible problems"





>

>Franz Schoenhofer wrote, in a message I generally agreed with:

>-----Original Message-----

>From: Franz Schoenhofer [mailto:franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT]

>Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 2:36 PM

>To: Thomas J Savin; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

>Subject: Re: Temelin

>

>     <snip>

>

> And it seems that it is intended to cover

>the terrible problems which the USA faces (Paducah, Yucca Mountains,

Hanford

>etc.) by telling stories about other countries and how ridiculous they are.

>

>Direct flames to my private address.

>

>Franz

>

>=============

>

>Not a flame, but a comment.

>

>The view of anything seems to get fairly fuzzy from ten thousand

kilometers.

>

>I can't speak to the issue of Paducah, but problems at Yucca Mountain are

>entirely political and the "terrible problems" at Hanford are basically

>non-existent.  We have significant contamination problems from fifty years

of

>manufacturing nuclear weapons materials, but that contamination is safety

>sequestered and is not a short-term risk to the population or the

environment,

>nor a long-term risk if the current cleanup is allowed to proceed to some

>reasonably-defined end point.

>

>I have lived very comfortably for more than twenty years in the Tri-Cities

in

>Washington State, which sits just downstream of the Hanford reservation on

the

>Columbia River.  The risks to local residents from continuing operations

and

>cleanup operations on site are modest to negligible, although through some

>strange physical/chemical phenomenon, by the time you get 200-300

kilometers

>away the risks are enormous and the problems "terrible".  For us, its just

>another day in paradise (assuming you have some tolerance for a desert

>environment).



----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------

The 'terrible problems' I referred to are basically the political problems

you also refer to, the lack of public and political acceptance for many more

sites than only Yucca Mountain, Paducah or Hanford. One problem you sure

agree is the enormous costs for clean up, whether clean up is necessary or

not - but they are a fact. The "terrible problems" sure are no radiation

protection problems. I know too little about the situation at Paducah, but I

am rather inclined to believe that the working conditions were not ideal. I

hope I expressed that in a really cautious way... This does not only refer

to radioactivity, but to other material like beryllium, explosives and

solvents as well.



Regarding Hanford I know quite a few persons from this site and they all

seem to be very healthy and well. I have been there almost a year ago for a

visit and thanks to a good friend I was also able to visit a few places on

site. You might guess that I was not afraid of the "terrible danger of

radiation".



Best regards,



Franz







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