Starting early

[Steven Dapra <sjd@swcp.com>]

October 28, 2003



	I recently happened upon "Nuclear Waste," a book in the "World About Us"

series (Copyright by Aladdin Books, Ltd., 1992).  Peter Roche of Greenpeace

is a consultant on this book.  The book is written for grade school students.



	According to the Introduction, "Thousands of tons of uranium" are used in

power reactors and bomb factories.  "The nuclear waste that is left over

will remain radioactive for thousands of years.  Most of it is far too

dangerous to go near.  Large amounts of nuclear waste already exist, and

more is being made all the time."  This sets the tone for the entire book.



	There is an elementary and accurate explanation of radiation, and the

author acknowledges the existence of natural radiation.  The reader is told

that Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium while "studying rocks from a

mine."  "Many miners developed lung cancer from breathing in radioactive

dust."  (Wasn't it radon gas the miners inhaled?)



	Under uranium mining we learn that some mining waste is buried in unused

mines, but some is left on the surface and "it can blow towards rivers and

towns."  The author does acknowledge that miners are "carefully monitored"

to assure that they are not over-exposed.



	Fuel rods are loaded into special metal casks "to stop the dangerous

nuclear radiation from escaping" and are shipped to reprocessing plants.

Casks were tested by running into them with a railroad locomotive.  The

locomotive was destroyed, but the cask stayed in one piece, "proving that

radioactive material is unlikely to leak out."  The author briefly

describes reprocessing, liquid waste, and long term disposal.  Under

short-term disposal a picture shows 55-gallon drums being stored in a

trench that appears to be unlined.



	Under decommissioning the child reader is told that power reactors remain

"dangerous for thousands of years," and is rhetorically asked, "should we

build new reactors if we can't even get rid of the old ones?"



	"Accidents will happen," and the worst one was at Chernobyl, where the

operators "were trying out a new safety idea, but it didn't work.  The

reactor overheated.  Then it exploded, caught fire, and melted."  Of

reactors in general, the author says if they melt down the fuel will melt

"through the concrete floor of the containment building."  



	"What will we do?" asks the author as he closes.  "In the future, people

will not tolerate nuclear waste."  Energy will come from wind, the waves,

and the sun.  A picture shows 55-gallon drums, a fallen-down fence, and

trefoils lying on a beach with the ocean stretching off into the distance.



	According to the text, "It is our responsibility to ensure that future

generations do not have to live among even more old reactors and nuclear

waste dumps."  Also, "Thousands of years from now, archaeologists will find

our nuclear waste dumps still dangerously radioactive.  What will they

think of us for leaving it there?"



	There is more, but you get the idea.  The author does manage to refrain

from claiming that plutonium is the most dangerous substance known to man.  



	There are some bursts of honesty in the book, such as reporting monitoring

for uranium miners and the safety of spent fuel casks, but on balance the

book has an openly anti-nuclear tone. To reiterate, the book is written for

grade-school children.  The anti-nuclear brainwashing starts early, doesn't

it?



Steven Dapra

sjd@swcp.com  







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