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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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These heavy metals I assume are quite dangerous, but as dangerous as radioactive trash?
If there were as many incidents of nuclear leakage as fly ash, wouldn't we be a bit more concerned?
Well as TGT said there are many considerations.
How is this stuff contained? What is the quantity? What is the mobility in the Environment? You hit on one, what is the toxicity?
These are just some of the questions one might look at when assessing environmental risk. Its kind of like yes you could be scared on the lastt pitch of the nose, but in reality most of us spend our time climbing much closer to the ground but we should be just as cautious.
The problem is we do a lousy job of assessing risks in our lives. If we did we probably would not drive to work because it might be the most dangerous thing we do, but we do it anyway, then we bitch and moan about nuclear waste. Now I am not for one minute saying we should not be concerned with it, but lets not let fear run emotions, lets look at it from a scientific perspective. And if you do that, you will find plenty of other things in your life that you should be upset about.
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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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In the 90's I worked on the Vineland NJ Superfund Site, elevated levels of highly toxic and mobile (soluble in water) Arsenic from a pesticice plant contaminated the river all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Worked on one site in NJ where some guys leased the land right near the Delaware River. They then picked up metal plating waste in tankers and dumped the stuff out on the ground. I think it was the Derewal Site. Excavations of the soil were the most amazing colors, purples, greens, yellows. The soil was laced with mercury, lead, chromium, etc.
Over the years I worked on over 14 different Superfund or National Priority List Sites in several different states. I also worked at a plant that destroyed chemical weapons, the M55 Rocket, what a great concept, sarin nerve agent, explosive charge and unstable rocket propellant that degraded and became more unstable over time. That project is all completed, we destroyed over 100,000 of those rockets. And that was only one of several sites across the country.
Now I work at the Hanford Site in Washington State, the largest most expensive cleanup project in the world. That stuff at San Onofre is nothing compared to what we have going on here.
What most people don't understand is that without a national repository, there are multiple sites across the country where spent fuel is stored. Google tells me there are 99 plants in 30 states operating which means that there are 99 of these sites across the country which stores spent nuclear fuel. My guess is that some of those have far more potential to harm the environment than San Onofre. But still, that risk is much lower than what has happened and will continue to happen at Coal Fired Plants.
Nuclear scares people. The same people who might live in a city with really shitty air quality which will shorten your life, (or they smoke), will bitch about nuclear. I am fine with bitching, but try to be informed about the argument.
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MisterE
Gym climber
Being In Sierra Happy Of Place
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golson - I know it's a small world in your work - sounds like you may have crossed paths.
Do you know my friend Jason G - ex-special-forces?
Now heads up stuff in Alaska?
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couchmaster
climber
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Gary said: "What most people don't understand is that without a national repository, there are multiple sites across the country where spent fuel is stored. Google tells me there are 99 plants in 30 states operating which means that there are 99 of these sites across the country which stores spent nuclear fuel. My guess is that some of those have far more potential to harm the environment than San Onofre. But still, that risk is much lower than what has happened and will continue to happen at Coal Fired Plants."
Bingo. Coal is ripping us a new one. A point on your point is that having 99 differing storage sites, all not vetted like a national one and all "temporary", will create 99 times the problems, actually, much much much more. I know for temporary nuclear things, not so much is the reality.
Good luck California.
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barry ohm
Trad climber
escondido, ca
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One of the reasons the spent fuel is stored temporarily/permanetly for now on site is there is no facility to ship the fuel to and no way to ship it. Its part of a bigger problem that will have to be addressed in the next 25 years as the rest of the 100 plants in the country become obsolete.
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