Letters to the Editor
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What do we do with the waste?
This stuff is lethally toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. We have to find a place to put it to store it safely for all that time. We haven't found a place yet.
I am skeptical of creating more of this incredibly hazardous waste when we haven't dealt with disposing of what we have already created.
Yes, we have storage containers that can probably safely transport the waste. But transport it to where? How can we guarantee the safety of this waste for that long?
I guess if we could find a way to drop it into a subduction zone that would move it under the earth's crust that would work. But we need to do that first. Let's not assume we will fix it at some unknown time in the future.
The oldest manmade structures on the planet have only been around for a tiny fraction of the amount of time needed until this stuff is safe.
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clone them!
If only it was possible to clone these people and mass produce them we might end up with a halfway decent world.
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I've read...
I've read the NRC daily reports and have been shocked at the near catastrophic accidents that have been avoided 'in the nick of time'.
A nuclear plant is a very complex process. Anything that hasn't been thought of can happen and even things that have been thought of may happen and due to either inadequate testing or improper training or installation, things can get totally out of hand.
I read one report about how a plant SCRAMMED (shutdown) after a grid power failure that fed the plant. Cooling pumps shutdown. The reactor started boiling. The backup generator didn't kick on. The backup backup generator didn't kick on. The auto-scram didn't fire like it was supposed to. When the operator hit the scram button, there was a huge buildup of pressure in the reactor containment vessel. There were cracks created in some areas. The pressure release valve popped. The top of the reactor popped. The NRC deemed it a 'minor issue' because the vented steam only went into the area between the primary containment and the secondary containment vessels.
I wasn't comforted. Chernobyl was caused by a rapid buildup of pressure in a reactor and a 'three stooges' response and a series of 'small' failures.
All it takes is one!
Plus with the history of the Bushist governments MO of stacking regulatory agencies with industry lobbyists, I don't trust the NRC to run a neighborhood koolaid stand let alone this countries nuclear power stations.