How then, do we move backwards? How does a society, with most of the people having no clue of future events, move from being dependent on a vast and intertwined network of goods and services produced by the indigenous people of whereever, to a local resource and renewable energy based society, and do so in the timeframe available (20-30 years using the most liberal extimates, 10-20 with resonable estimates, 5-10 with worst case scenarios), all the while prices on everything increasing, world politics getting more militaristic, governments continuously reducing civil liberties, shortages of goods on the market and weather patterns resembling bad Hollywood movies?
Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 11:09 am Post subject: Question about nuclear waste
Hello,
I have another question along the lines of the last one I asked. I read an essay by Alan AtKisson in which he said that because nuclear wastes are so poisionous, it was imperative for us to preserve our technological society for thousands of years so that we would be able to contain them.
Is this true? I don't know much about the problems of disposing of radioactive plutonium. Ignoring the NIMBY issues for a moment, are there feasible options for disposing of it in ways that don't require our continuing attention, so that it won't leak out even if we fall back into the stone age? If not, what are the likely consequences?
Joined: Mar 18, 2005 Posts: 2564 Location: Minnesota
Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 11:20 am Post subject:
Sure...they dug a massive hole in the earth in nevada & are burrying it all in there...it's on a major fault line so if/when a big earthquake hits it should be all wide open to the atmosphere & we can all pretend we are the wicked witch of the west
And it may no longer be true to say that there is no safe means of disposing of nuclear waste. I have just read a technical report produced by the Finnish nuclear authority Posiva which, to my untrained eye, looks pretty convincing. The spent fuel is set in cast iron, which is then encased in copper and dropped down a borehole. The borehole is filled with saturated bentonite, a kind of clay. Posiva’s metallurgists suggest that under these conditions the copper barrier would be good for at least a million years.(9)
The writer goes on to say that even if it's possible in theory, he's not convinced it will work out that way in practice.
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