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Edited on Sat Jun-07-08 01:46 AM by tom_paine
Food for thought.
I would like to give you food for thought, and if you can answer me without calling me names or going into a tirade, I would like to hear your reply.
I don't want to argue the larger issues of 400ppm or CO2 vs. nuclear. I tend to agree with you about that, though I believe nuclear FUSION is the best, if not only, way to answer CO2 without damaging our environment further in the way you rantingly suggest.
As I said, these are very interesting links, and I am going to read them in more detail later on. On first impression, though, I see two significant problems with your hypothesis that Okla is a suitable comparator to Yucca.
#1) Note the abstract refers to noble gas migration only. Xe and Kr, etc. As I am sure you know, Noble Gases are called "noble" because they are the most unreactive, stable elements on the periodic table. Now, I am no expert in the wastes generated by nuclear plants, but I have worked with radiation in small quantities in my work as molecular biologist, I have basic knowledge of radiation and radiation safety.
I even have some direct experience when I spilled 400 microcuries in the lab. Had to file an EPA report and everything. Still, it was small enough to clean up by myself and another person, even if it took a few hours to get the counts down to acceptable. Unbelievable pain in the ass to clean up, pernicious as hell, even that small amount, spilled in a localized area, spreads unbelievably fast and gets in places where you are scratching your head and saying "how the fuck did it get all the way over there? I never even walked there! The beta shields blocked the area entirely, how did it get there?"
I also participated in a massive lab-wide clean up when another worker spilled a radioactive column and failed to take note because she hadn't been trained properly...also she was a sloppy scientist to start with. She tracked it about, again in small microcurie-level quantities. THAT was a cleanup that required ten of us and took almost two full days before we could work in that part of the building again.
Having said that, are there not in this tens of thousands of metric tons of waste, contaminated booties, clothing, and probably a thousand different radioactive hazardous liquid chemical wastes, not to mention spent fuel rods, none of which I am willing to wager, are made up exclusively of Noble Gases, in these wastes going to Yucca? If so, does that not invalidate your hypothesis that Okla is a suitable comparison to Yucca?
#2) Okla is a natural formation, evolved over millions of years, maybe billions (as I said, I will read this in more detail later). But it is just that, a NATURAL formation evolved over geologic time. Further, it contains raw uranium ore, not highly refined chemicals never before seen in nature, and contained in vessels built by human beings. Plus not enclosed by an evolved multi-million year process, but in metal structures that aren't even going to be anchored into the Earth!
To my mind, these aspects of it also invalidate Okla as a legitimate comparison, and thus you cannot, at least with any high degree of confidence that should be brought to any endeavor such as storing 70,000 metric tons of nuclear waste for geologic time, say it is a legitimate comparison.
If you can answer me without calling me "fundie" or moron or any other names, please do so. If not, don't bother. If you feel you must point out what a fundie moran I am by screeching at me, go to it. :shrug:
P.S. I am a very angry person, too, for different person, but for different reasons, so I get it.
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