Re: LLW status according to AP: a fair

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

Radsafers:

Several have correctly stated that waste disposal is a political
problem. Therefore, there must be a political solution. Wouldn't it be
great if consumers and end-users had to dispose of their own waste ?
If this were so, citizens and groups like the Sierra Club and Earth
First would be given little bottles with the waste from the items they
purchase and use.
e. g. HNO3, H2SO4, and fly ash with their new cars and utility bills.
Dioxin with toilet paper, kleenex, and printed matter. etc.
If this ere to be done I believe a "solution" to the "problem" of waste
disposal would soon be found.

Also, it's absurd and expensive to first dig up a product of the earth
and use it, then to bury the by-products somewhere else, and finally to
dig them up again only to re-bury them in yet a different location.
Unfortunately this seems to be particularly popular with petroleum and
uranium.

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.

Best wishes to all,
-- 
Wade

mailto:hwade@triax.com

H.Wade Patterson
1116 Linda Lane
Lakeview OR 97630
ph 541 947-4974