Re: Articles of Interest to PIE

[mgoldman@ucdavis.edu (Dr. Marvin Goldman)]

>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
 Reply:
Right on, Jim!
Marvin Goldman