Articles of Interest to PIE

[JMUCKERHEIDE@delphi.com]

FYI (from Barbara Hubbard, Section PI Chair):

SEE NOTE BELOW
----------------------forwarded message-----------------
News from NEI...

     According to a recent Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 
Infowire,
     "The National Research Council has found that ground water
contamination at the proposed low-level radioactive waste (LLRW)
site in Ward Valley appears to be highly unlikely.  Continued
scientific measurement, monitoring and assessment will be needed 
if California state officials move ahead with plans to build the
facility.
     "`The 700-foot deep unsaturated zone between the desert
surface and the ground water below is extremely dry, and
contaminants are highly unlikely to pass through this zone to the
water table,' said committee chair George A. Thompson, professor
emeritus of geophysics at Stanford University. `But the same dry
conditions that make some desert sites favorable for isolating 
LLRW also make gathering reliable data on water flow difficult 
over short time periods.'
     "More data should be collected over time to improve the
reliability of monitoring at the site, located in California's
eastern Mojave Desert, where waste would be placed in a series of
covered trenches.  The Council's study was conducted in response 
to a request from Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to
investigate health and environmental concerns about the Ward 
Valley site raised by three geologists from the U.S. Geological 
Survey." 

------------------end forwarded message----------------

[FASCINATING! IF WE  __POURED__  RADWASTE INTO THE SITE WE KNOW IT WOULDN'T GO 
MORE THAN A FEW METERS IN A FEW HUNDRED YEARS, 

THAT'S MORE THAN 100 METERS ABOVE THE WATER TABLE, 

THEN MORE THAN 20 MILES (UPHILL) TO THE COLUMBIA RIVER, 

BUT AFTER MONTHS OF GAZING AT OUR NAVALS, WE STILL NEED TO SHILL FOR BIG-COST
"SCIENCE" TO BE "ASSURED" THAT THE SITE IS "SAFE"   

---   AND WE WONDER WHY THE PUBLIC DOESN'T BELIEVE (OR TRUST) US  !!!

AND THAT'S WITHOUT NOTING THAT MORE RADIOACTIVITY RUNS DOWN THE COLUMBIA RIVER 
IN 1 HOUR  __TODAY__  (AND EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY) THAN WOULD BE DISCHARGED
TO THE RIVER IN 10,000 YEARS IF THE SITE DISCHARGED DIRECTLY TO THE COLUMBIA
RIVER AFTER A FEW HUNDRED YEARS. 

DOES ANYBODY THINK A LITTLE HONESTY WITH THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE
NON-THREAT, INSTEAD OF BUYING INTO THE FICTION THAT COSTS $100s MILLIONS OF
PUBLIC FUNDS MISDIRECTED THAT COULD BE BETTER SPENT ON REAL HEALTH EFFECTS AND 
RISKS.] 

Regards, Jim