To the editor,
Nuclear waste is not the same as regular garbage. Let’s get this right.
Is nuclear waste disposal as safe as promoted? Are we advancing prematurely into uncharted territory? Why must we be subjecting legacy generations to risk? Once the nuclear waste is in a deep geological repository (DGR), it will be abandoned. Is this wise, or should we be able to access it? After abandonment, who is liable?
Nuclear waste is a territory with numerous unanswered problems; at best, it is an experiment with no unknown consequences. In the community, there has been overweening information concerning nuclear waste, primarily about the advantages but little about the potential hazards.
We are dealing with radiation – a deadly, non-visible, tasteless by-product of splitting the atom. Is the safety information regarding spent nuclear fuel (SNF) adequate? We have only received data from the pro-nuclear industry. Information from independent nuclear scientists is readily available. Full cognizance of what we are doing concerning a DGR is essential. Although much independent science is acquirable, it has been bypassed.
Go through the studies conducted by scientists not affiliated with the nuclear sector. Scientific literature is not as positive as the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) would have us believe. A comprehensive reading of objective scientific literature leads to a fuller understanding of the facts of radiation decay – the grave dangers – and deaths associated with radiation. We need a more comprehensive understanding of the matter, not just unitary. Risks that the NMWO fail to reference, including radiation exposure from spent fuel or a nuclear detonation, have the same effect. The long-term consequences of nuclear radiation are severe. It is important to note that nuclear detonation happens rapidly, but spent fuel exposure happens more gradually. The effects of spent nuclear fuel exposure appear for an impossible-to-measure length of time and entangle generations to come to mitigate them. Tell past victims’ families of deaths and mutations that nuclear is fortuitous. While the nuclear industry still has no satisfactory solution to the “waste problem.”
Here are just a few of the problems:
– the transport of this waste poses an unacceptable risk to people and the biosphere;
– mankind is new in this field – the atom was only split in the past century, about 85 years ago. We are talking about 100,000 years-plus of unknown attributes of nuclear decomposition;
– plutonium is the most dangerous material in the world;
– nuclear waste is hazardous for tens of thousands of years. The dangers must pose a threat to future generations;
– even if put into a geological repository, the waste might emerge and threaten future generations;
– nobody knows the cost of waste management. The costs are so high that nuclear power can never be economically viable; and
– should nuclear waste be transmuted into harmless materials?
Keep in mind that the organization paying the scientist determines the caliber of the research.
Without complete disclosure, all questions must be answered before a community can or will be a “willing host community.” Why the hurry?
Dennis D. Eickmeier
South Bruce
