Re: LLW status according to AP: a fair

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

On Wed, 16 Jul 1997 JMUCKERHEIDE@delphi.com wrote:
> 
> Consider the radioactivity released from deep-sea "blacksmoker" hydrothermal
> vents? From volcanics? What about ground water that discharges massively more
> radioactivity than released by all the rivers? 

	--I am confident that I can show that there would be essentially 
no effects on human health and no significant radiation dose to sea
animals (except for the tiny number that inhabit the immediate area of
dumps). My paper in the Jan 1980 issue of NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY showed that
this is basically true even if high level waste were dumped. It is my
impression that the London Convention was driven by politics and no strong
scientific effort was made to resist it because it was believed that
shallow land burial was an easy option. Now that shallow land burial is in
trouble because of the NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude, I would like
to see ocean dumping re-examined. At least it avoids NIMBY.