Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 8/22/06, SISU! <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:
> They can and have [invented ways to undo toxic stuff]  It's just expensive to 
> install scrubbers on
> incinerators.  I

Yeah, and since it costs money, it's going to require regulations to
make corporations use the remedies.

>  [The same with nuclear waste.] >
> 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.  ....Personally, I've 
> always favored the rebury the stuff
> approach...dumping it in the ocean isn't a good idea, .

Yeah, everything that comes from the earth is radioactive. Coal-fired
electric generation plants give off more radiation that nuclear plants
do because coal contains substantial amounts of radioactive materials.
(Of course, if you're a terrorist, you'd rather bomb a nuclear plant
than a coal-fired plant, but that's another story -- though the
nuclear plant would be safer if it didn't have lots of spent fuel
lying around because there's no place to take it.)

Deep ocean disposal of very high-level nuclear waste would probably be
a safe disposal method. The Navy (IIRC) did some studies about what
happens if you dump highly radioactive material into deep ocean
trenches; evidently, it sinks in and is soon buried. Seismic processes
probably bury it beyond reach of any part of the biosphere, even the
deep ocean worms.

Lynda, do you have a link to the ocean-dumping story?

Marie