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From: timothym@tekigm2.UUCP (Timothy D Margeson)
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: About the life of nuclear wastes
Message-ID: <859@tekigm2.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Aug-86 19:04:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekigm2.859
Posted: Tue Aug  5 19:04:21 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Aug-86 06:26:24 EDT
References: <1970@brl-smoke.ARPA> <320@rtech.UUCP>
Reply-To: timothym@tekigm2.UUCP (Timothy D Margeson)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 34
cc: timothym@tekigm2

There has been some discussion about nuclear waste and the side effects:

One of the pro arguments states that we can safely dispose of the effluent
and keep the site safe over the many hundreds to thousands of years, thus
preventing our grandchildren from accidentally digging into the waste dump.

I put to you the fact there are documented cases of arsenic disposal sites
created in the 1930's used for drinking water wells in the 1980's. A mere
50 years and we lost the dangers lurking beneath the ground.

The excuse or argument that we have better communication now than in 1950
holds no ground because a small war can destroy any and all of this better
communication in minutes. And the war need not be nuclear itself to do so.

Disposing of dangerous materials, whether nuclear waste, chemical waste, or
whatever you can think of being toxic to our grandchildren or their children
in dumps is unsafe, period. The material sunk into the ground, even in salt
domes will eventually be dug up, drilled through or somehow exposed, causing
at least minor injuries before the cause is isolated.

I don't have the answers, nor do I have the right questions to ask, but I do
intuitively know that creating large amounts of 'stuff' that we don't know
what we are going to do with after we make it, scares me.

Think about where you live. Someone has been there before you. What did they
do on your lot, maybe they mixed rat poison, maybe they mixed bread. Unless
you took the time to find out, you may unwittingly dig a vegy garden (or a
pool by the vegies) in dirt once used as a cattle or sheep insecticide dip
tank, and now you plant your tomatoes in it.

I for one would not like to think that what I did might kill someone at some
point in time after I have left this Earth. I do enough damage while I live.

Thought to think about. Toodles....