Nuclear waste: Keep out – for 100,000 years ~ Wolfram Publications

Monday, April 25, 2011

Nuclear waste: Keep out – for 100,000 years

Few architects have to design anything to last more than 100 years, so how do you build a nuclear waste facility to last for millennia? And what sign do you put on the door?

Ceremonies will be held around the worldon Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster but, in truth, Chernobyl is one event we're in no danger of forgetting. For one thing, the earthquake in Japan has given the world a second Level Seven incident on the International Nuclear Event Scale, refreshing public fears with almost cosmic timing. For another, the legacy of Chernobyl will be remembered for much, much longer than anyone would wish. According to estimates, this area of northern Ukraine will be uninhabitable for decades, if not centuries.

Source: The Guardian

3 comments :

Unknown said...: Regrettably it is this type of publication that keeps the world in fear and ignorant.
Ignorant about the real dangers of nuclear radiation and in fear of... what? A nuclear holocaust?

The facts are that nuclear waste products that present danger to human and animal life are high or extremely high radiation products with a very short half time in the order of less then a split second to a few hours.

Radioactive material with half life times of 1000 years or more are in terms of the radiation produced completely harmless, they are natural isotopes found in nature, such as C14 for instance the natural occurrence which is used by archeologists to date ancient and prehistoric remains and fossils.

That said, a nuclear power plant is less dangerous than a truckload of LPG or even worse, a truck load of LNG. Every year hundreds of people are killed by gas explosions of natural gas transport lines. In 2004, 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in Gellingen, Belgium, a heavier toll than Tchernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island combined. In 1978, 215 people died when a truck filled with liquid gas came off the road and exploded in Spain. In December last year 28 were killed when a gas pipeline blew up in Mexico. Just a few accidents form a list about a mile long that don't seem to bother anybody. Many of you have such a pipeline running just a few yards away from your own dwelling.

So if we are forgetting something it is factual, commonly available knowledge and common sense.

Misinformation which is the basis of this article does not help any debate. But certainly with even the most seasoned journalists and editors of even the most respectable news media, as soon as they pick up the word nuclear, they hit the panic button and completely loose their perspective and sense of reality. Lack of knowledge is one thing, deliberately fostering it for whatever reason is quite something else.; April 26, 2011 at 1:15 AM
Matthew Smith said...: Wow, based on that last comment it appears Wolfram Publications is getting through to the nuclear industry. I wonder how much this idiot gets paid to sit around a disseminate this mindlessness, probably with his pants around his knees as he clicks back to his online porn. The world is in multiple meltdown alert mode with hundreds of thousands even millions in immediate danger and he's wasting time attacking the messenger?!; April 26, 2011 at 2:49 AM
Unknown said...: In answer to @newarkitecture,

Thanks for proving my point exactly. Still, you seem to have an even lower regard for editors in general and this editor of the Guardian in particular, calling him a messenger.; April 26, 2011 at 11:38 AM

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Monday, April 25, 2011