Reply #177: PV has higher externalities than nuclear????

[Filius Nullius]

It sounds pretty wacked out for anyone to say that PV could have higher externalities anywhere or under any conditions than nuclear. Plutonium is a very radioactive substance. It is extremely toxic and has no safe levels of exposure to the human body. Exposure to miniscule doses of plutonium, even inhalation of one milligram or less, can cause cancer. Once it finds its way into the body, plutonium remains there for longer than the average human life span. Inside a person, plutonium may expose very sensitive parts of the body to harmful radiation. This can cause genetic damage, leading to birth defects in offspring.

Plutonium has a half life of 24,000 years, which means that half of the harmful radiation is still present after 24,000 years. Thus, it would take hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years to arrive at safe levels of radiation. Did they calculate the cost of guarding it for that long to keep it from falling into the hands of terrorists? For that matter, is it even possible to plan to guard it for that long since no civilization has ever lasted for more than a few thousand years. The longest I know of is ancient Egypt, but even it had 31 dynasties (think regime changes). Did they calculate the cost of failing to guard it and allowing terrorists to incorporate it into a dirty bomb?