Any nuclear waste coming through your town?

[Howie]

Not too long ago I read an article explaining that there are trucks filled with nuclear waste traveling through towns. Obviously they have to get from point a to point B -- Probably a poor Indian's reserve. (although they do get compensated well) I live near lake Erie Perry nuclear plant. The other day I saw this massive, just huge container being hauled behind this truck. It had a police escort and traffic flaggers. Now I don't know what it was hauling. However, what would you think of a couple tons of plutonium, uranium or what ever else makes up nuclear waste, is coming to your town?? I wonder if they alert local emergency, police and fireman first? Not that they could get some cat litter and clean it up. I guess you could always move back into your community in some 400,000 years. I wanted some more concrete facts and found this --> Radio active waste management I have a very interesting book by Michael light called one hundred suns. Some fascinating facts I will be posting later. How do you feel about nuclear power in general? How should it be transported? Where should it be transported more?

[Alric]

If it counts they want to put a huge nuclear waste dump in the inside of an unstable mountain. Oh did I mention I lived near the west coast nearly all the waste they want to dump there comes from the east coast? They are going to have to figure out a way to ship the stuff across the entire length of the country. I think they figured it out to be a truck load driving down the highway every ten minutes if they decide to put it in. How do I feel about it? I would tell you except this a family website and kids might see it.

[Patrick]

Where I am, Aberdeen, sections of the beach have been closed off to the public due to unsafe radiation levels. People just dump it wherever they want, I guess, at least for the moment.

[Alric]

Nuclear waste is normally kept on site and the government normally keeps a close eye on it. I think what normally gets dump is stuff like medical waste and industrial waste both of which may have radioactive stuff within it. Now I am just guessing but the stuff you probably saw was likely contaminated stuff that is near or in the reactor but its unlikely it was the actual fuel for it or anything. Though that stuff can be deadly as well. Now what they want to stick into the mountain near me, and ship across the entire country is the actual spent fuel, which is highly raidoactive and lasts forever.

[Howie]

Nuclear waste is normally kept on site and the government normally keeps a close eye on it. I think what normally gets dump is stuff like medical waste and industrial waste both of which may have radioactive stuff within it. Now I am just guessing but the stuff you probably saw was likely contaminated stuff that is near or in the reactor but its unlikely it was the actual fuel for it or anything. Though that stuff can be deadly as well. Now what they want to stick into the mountain near me, and ship across the entire country is the actual spent fuel, which is highly raidoactive and lasts forever. Correct. What do you propose they do with this crap? They also would like to come up with this universal sign that they could put around these places that would act as a warning for a possible species that may inhabit the earth many years after we are gone and the radioactivity is not. Interesting thought. They need to figure out a way to neutralize radioactive waste.

[Alric]

They have a few different ideas on how to recycle the nuclear fuel but they never got around to doing it. Mostly because if you include the recycling cost, its cheaper to use gas than nuclear power. Isn't that what it always comes down to though? Its cheaper to dump the crap so thats what they want to do.

[.:Rob:.]

I really don't know much at all about nuclear power - all I've heard is what's on the news and what they taught us in physics lessons when I was at school, but I just read this article and it seems to make out that the only real danger from nuclear power is disposal of the waste, and danger of terrorist attacks. Is this true? Are these the only actual problems with nuclear power? Because if they are then I think it's the only way forward through the whole "energy chrisis". Surely they'll find a way of overcoming the waste disposal problems eventually.

[Alric]

Nuclear actually is a pretty good source of power. Thats a big short coming to overcome however. The waste remains radioactive for 100's of thousands years. So its no simple matter to get rid of. We have ways however, they are just so costly its cheaper not to bother. So its unlikely we will solve the problem untill energy price raise through the roof and its actually worth it to bother.

[Howie]

I really don't know much at all about nuclear power - all I've heard is what's on the news and what they taught us in physics lessons when I was at school, but I just read this article and it seems to make out that the only real danger from nuclear power is disposal of the waste, and danger of terrorist attacks. Is this true? Are these the only actual problems with nuclear power? Because if they are then I think it's the only way forward through the whole "energy chrisis". Surely they'll find a way of overcoming the waste disposal problems eventually. nuclear reactors have a huge plume of steam that arise from the top of them. this is often mistaken for smoke. It is not. This is why they are built by large bodies of water. This is to merely cool the reactors core. As in the Three mile Island incident and Chernobyl there is always the threat of a nuclear melt down. If the NRC would crack down on these corroded lids and other devices that have failed there would not likely be any incidents of that nature. Nuclear reactors are also under ground. The huge tower we all see is the cooling tower. This makes an attach from a terrorist unlikely. They just don't have the weaponry to penetrate a reactors core. If targeted by a more sophisticated missile, then it may be another story. But back to the transporting of this chemical waste. This is when I see it most vulnerable. A truck. A slow moving target that is certainly penetrable. If they have to put the waste somewhere and they do. IO would much rather see them put it all in One place rather then scattered about the country side.