9 Responses

1. Send it hurling into the sun with launch vehicles. I’ve been saying this for many years.

2. No, they are too expensive, and there really isn’t a safe way of storing the waste.
   The money used to build one plant could be used for other resources.

3. Absolutely. No technology is risk free. More people died in a single mine accident this year than have died in the entire history of US nuclear energy technology. The benefits of nuclear energy far outweigh the risk.

   Think of all the deaths from coal mining, and the environmental impact of coal. Think of the deaths from oil extraction and refining, and the enviromental cost of oil spills and other accidents. Nuclear energy could meet 80% of the energy needs of the US, with minimal greenhouse gas emission. Today, France gets 80% of their domestic power needs from nuclear plants. The US nuclear power industry is safer than either coal or oil–in terms of loss of life or environmental damage.

   There may be a nuclear accident one day. It will be regrettable, but the risk is necessary. People have died in every human endeavor, from ancient sailing exploration to the space shuttle. We accept risks, because the benefits of such actions are worth while. And, as I said, the deaths and ecological damage from any potential nuclear accident would be overwhelmed by the cumulative deaths and damage of coal and oil production. At it’s very worst, it would pale beside the single night of terror in Bhopal India. I don’t hear anyone calling for an end to chemical plants.

   I’m not a nuclear scientist, so I don’t know the best way to dispose of the waste. Burying it in the ocean is one solution, as is burying it in the desert. I’d leave it to experts to choose the best option.

4. You should ask this question to those at Chernobyl.

   Nuclear energy is clean when in the hands of sane people…but if we have thousands of nuclear power plants…and 100 years from now when America may fall, who will operate them?…it will be a disaster.

   We need to dump it in the ground or shoot it to the sun…use nature (solar, wind, wave power) to help end our energy crisis.

5. Dump it in the ocean? I hope that was a joke.

6. Yes, we most definitely should be building and using nuclear power instead of fossil fuel and coal; instead of ICBM’s with dozens of warheads on them !! THAT is what produced the waste (in more ways than what we will ever know).

   And, no..the waste should not be dumped in the ocean…what idiot thought of that one. My gawd…the pressure on those very expensive, reinforced drums, at depth, is unimaginable !!! To even do it once was foolish and wicked. Of course, they will leak eventually.

   Now, IF we do build nuclear plants; we have to do it after having counted the cost. Of course, things will go wrong !! There has never been, and never will be, a man / woman engineered project that is fool proof. Never. There are lots of earthquakes happening all over the world. One of those fissures is going to “get” a plant in operation and the odds go up if you build more plants. And that’s life. We cannot escape the consequences of our choices.

   But the entire power grid system is aged, over extended and collapsing; as I write. And it is absurd that “we” (read, nuclear nations) have generated all of this destructive potential and war machinary; with not a thought about harnessing nuclear for a better world for all of us.

7. No. It is not a clean energy alternative. Radioactive waste takes thousands of years to fully decay. Using nuclear materials for energy also increases the chance for nations, governments, people, etc. to use it for weaponry and this is something that is a problem one million times bigger than running out of fossil fuels.

8. Yes. And let the United States Navy run the new reactors.

   The US Navy started using nuclear propulsion in 1955, 52 years ago. In all that time, only TWO nuclear submarines have sank, and neither one was due to reactor problems. Thousands of US sailors have served aboard nuclear powered vessels and suffered no ill effects from radiation.

   They have proven that they know what they are doing!

9. I agree with the use of Nuke power, but lets bury the waste in YOUR backyard and not mine huh? Yucca mountain is within 500 miles of MY house and kids. Less than 100′ away from my yard is the train tracks they will be running that crap along. So pardon me for fearing someone having a bad day at work, and one of the canisters they want to put the waste in having a defect. But hey, its not your house, your family, or you thats in danger, so why worry right? Im sure, right along with the rest of you, that our government and all of its contractors will make sure that everything is 110% and that nothing will go wrong in the 10000 years it will take for this material to degrade to somewhat safe levels.