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["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Lynda wrote:

> They announced today that they will be hauling nuclear plant waste 
> water into the Atlantic and dumping it.  Their only concern was to 
> assure folks that it wouldn't harm their drinking water.  No mention 
> of what it would do to the plankton, kelp and fish out there or the 
> folks on the end of that food chain who eat the fish.

Who is "They"?

  Why the heck can't they invent a way to undo stuff
> they do?  Why, if they know they are attaching a chlorine atom to 
> oxygen and carbon and coming up with dioxin, can't they come up with 
> a way to undo the thing OR to add another atom to it to make 
> something else that isn't toxic!

They can and have!  It's just expensive to install scrubbers on
incinerators.  I googled dioxin remediation and this came up:
http://www.commodore.com/technologies/set_treatment_furans.htm
This company is one of many that specializes in dioxin remediation. (I
have no interest in the company-never heard of them before-just googled
them up)


 The same with nuclear waste.  If we
> can split an atom, why can't we figure a way to unsplit an atom or to
>  make them attach to something else that would be a good thing?


That's a whole 'nuther matter....
Radiation happens, whether we split atoms or not.  Radon is the second
leading cause of lung cancer in the US, for example.  Uranium and
Plutonium and other 'unstable' atoms like Cesium are gonna shed
particles.  Deep in the earth, they shed radiation naturally, but the
earth's mass buffers us.  We mine the stuff, which is deadly enough as
is, then make it more deadly to generate steam to run turbines to
produce power.  Of course, we also take it a step further and make
weapons.  Personally, I've always favored the rebury the stuff
approach...dumping it in the ocean isn't a good idea, but I am sure it
happens all the time unofficially.  I'd like to read the article if you
have a link...

Bev


--
Bevanron in NW Georgia          EarthNSky Farm  34.498N 85.076W
SISU! (Finnish--There is no single word in English that encompasses
all that sisu means, but it combines the following ideas: guts, pep,
determination, stubbornness, perseverance, hardiness, stamina, go, do,
nerve, spunk, pluck, and grit.  It's like "Just Do It!" & "Go for It!")
                                GO NAVY!