The Voice of the People
... or at least my own
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... or at least my own |
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April 30, 2002
Ladies and gentleman we have a savior. Look no further, the answers to our nuclear storage
problems is over. We now have ... Yucca Mountain. We don't have to make tough choices
about our future, because Yucca Mountain can hold 63,000 metric tons of all that bad ole nuclear
waste stuff. And yea, we'll still be producing electricity with nuclear reactors, but that's okay
because we got ... Yucca Mountain.
Ladies and gentleman please think again. According to the Department of Energy we now have
46,000 metric tons scattered at about 131 sites across the country. That leaves us with 17,000
more metric tons cushion. Since we are also generating 2,000 metric tons per year, you have to
wonder : what are we going to do in 9 years, because 9 times 2,000 equals 18,000 ? Obviously,
we are going to need a new mountain to save us.
We need to stop playing games and stop acting like this is some minor situation. If we increase
the current 20% ratio of electric production, this amount of waste per year will only increase. Are
we capable of handling waste that is 3 or 4 thousand tons per year without fatal consequences in
100 years.
Note that 3,000 times 100 is 300,000 metric tons. What are we gonna do next century, get 6
more mountains? Will we start selling mountains to private companies who will warehouse and
monitor the waste?
And what else will be the consequential results of thinking we can still use nuclear fuel? What to
do with the waste has always been the Achilles' heel of nuclear energy, but some would have you
believe this is just another brand of aspirin. The fact is that interested parties have invested in the
nuclear scheme and these interested parties don't want to drop their investment, which is a
completely rational act. However, even a junkie must admit the foolishness of the inevitable
doom. Mountain or not, we need to just plain STOP all nuclear reactors from operating and
develop alternative sources. We can use solar and wind power to make up the 20%, but the
interested parties have colluded with other interested parties to make sure that never happens.
Scources : Matt Bivens, "Save Us, President Truman!" 04/05/2002 , the Nation
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