> Fundamentally the problem is that coal and oil are just too cheap. End > of story. No amount of well-wishing will make things > different until the > economy is forced to take into account the externalities involved from > CO2 production. Agreed, but don't leave out the other externalities like health, war, etc... > The entirety of the high-level radioactive waste in the whole > world from > *all* sources, including the massive amounts of waste developed to > support the nuclear weapons programs, would fit in an office building. > > Up in Yellowknife where my parents live, there is that much volume of > highly toxic arsenic-trioxide sitting underground from a *single* gold > mine. Did I mention the damn stuff is water-soluble too? > > Source: http://nwt-tno.inac-ainc.gc.ca/giant/atg_e.html > > Not to imagine the huge amounts of other far more deadly stuff than > arsenic that get dumped... Nuclear waste is the least of our concerns. > >From a waste handlers perspective, it's really easy to work > with because > it's trivial to detect, if it's dangerous, a Geiger counter will start > beeping. Done. Seal it off. If it's really dangerous, IE hot, it must > have a short half-life, so soon (IE decades) it'll be a whole > lot safer > than it was. > > That arsenic mentioned above has to be sealed for eternity, it will > *never* become safe. Ever. The same is true for anything containing > heavy metals, like lead. Nuclear waste is pretty tame stuff by > comparison. So true. And yet, so many people are so upset about it... > Heck, ever wondered why Hiroshima and Nagasaki are now > thriving cities? And if you really want to bend your mind, there are people alive to day, who were standing in the middle of those cities when the bombs went off. "Duck, cover and roll" is, in fact, valuable advice, but the other major point seems to be "don't drink the black rain" and don't get trampled on the way to the river. --- James. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist