Re: Job of dismantling Brookhaven reactor

["jjcohen" <jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET>]

    I find this to be a really sad story. Another reminder that the crazies

are

  controlling our energy and public health policies. Was there an EIS

including

  cost-benefit analysis to justify the $97 million cost of dismantling the

reactor?

  Assuming that the main benefit will be in helping the mental health of the

STAR

  people, shouldn't they bear the cost? Just out of curiority: how was the

  containment period of 87,000 years determened??



  >

  > BY ANN GIVENS

  > STAFF WRITER

  >

  > April 12, 2004

  > The radioactive Graphite Research Reactor at Brookhaven National

  > Laboratory may be taken apart by robots and disposed of at a nuclear

  > waste dump so toxic that even bugs can't leave once they've entered.

  >

  > Along the way, lab and Department of Energy officials will take

  > precautions to make sure no radioactive material escapes into the

  > environment, where it could harm humans or wildlife.

  >

  > Lab officials and environmentalists agree that, in spite of some risks,

  > removing the reactor is the best choice.

  >

  > "We were persuaded that the dangers associated with dismantling the

  > reactor wouldn't even come close to the danger of keeping it in place,"

  > said Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens

  > Society and a member of the lab's Community Advisory Council.

  >

  > The proposal to remove the reactor, which is still preliminary, was a

  > major turnaround for the Department of Energy, which earlier had floated

  > a plan to "entomb" it for up to 87,000 years. Environmentalists and

  > several legislators praised the new plan, which lab officials say will

  > eliminate 99 percent of the reactor's radioactive material.

  >

  > But they said care must be taken in doing the work.

  >

  > "It's a slow, painstaking job because the material is radioactive," said

  > Gordon Thompson, a nuclear engineer who recently completed a report on

  > decommissioning the reactor for the Long Island environmental group

  > Standing for Truth About Radiation Foundation.

  >

  > The reactor, which operated from 1950 to 1969, was the world's first

  > peacetime nuclear research reactor. Its cleanup, along with the removal

  > of mercury and other pollutants from the Peconic River, is among the

  > final steps in the federal process aimed at removing contamination at

  > Brookhaven National Lab.

  >

  > If the plan goes forward, it will cost about $97 million, and take

  > between two and four years.

  >

  > The process will be regulated through the Department of Energy,

  > officials said. Details of the dismantling are still subject to change.







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