Re: More Greenpeace intervention

["H.Wade Patterson" <hwade@talltown.com>]

Group:
If Greenpeace and other such groups were sincere in their fear of
radiation they would demand that reactors be built and operated ASAP.

Here's the argument. I'm sorry I don't have a reference. I heard this
talk in an IAEA(?) Symposium on Nuclear Waste in Las Vegas (?) about 20
years ago. Perhaps someone can help me and provide one?

a. Assume that natural Uranium (plus daughters) is toxic and a measure
of its toxicity is given by the quantity of water needed to reduce U
levels to drinking water standards.

b. Assume that U is mined, turned into reactor fuel, irradiated to usual
burnup, waste extracted and Pu removed for use as a reactor fuel. Next,
assume the remaining waste is returned to the original U ore location;
and there guarded and watched for 300-500 years. After that period it's
less toxic than was the original U in place (by the measure of the
quantity of water needed to reduce the toxicity of the remaining waste
to drinking water standards.

c. Thus, if one wishes to cleanse the Earth of deadly radioactivity, one
should follow the above prescription.

Wade
hwade@talltown.com