Reply #14: Thousands of years? No. That's a misconception.

[Dogmudgeon]

Only a very small amount of nuclear "waste" has a long, hot half-life. It is possible to separate this out, as the French do for many (most?) of their reactors' "waste". Most of it decays to background level within a millennium; it is down to one billionth of its intensity after a century or two, depending on the radionuclide mix.

This is a non-trivial problem, but the present storage method has proven safe for decades. Even so, I strongly support developing better reprocessing and transmutation technologies to "encapsulate" the entire nuclear fuel cycle while waste and proliferation remain a concern. (I put that in bold format so no one else who may read this will mistake my position.)

Nuclear energy does NOT have anywhere near the potential of killing many more than most other sources over ANY period of time. All combustion sources and MOST "renewable" sources are either directly more poisonous, or can cause major environmental damage during construction and manufacture. Compare it to the nuclear waste generated by coal or petrochemicals: coal generates one hundred times the ambient radiation at a minimum, as well as about 50 tons of uranium and thorium in the fly-ash per gigawatt. Solar photovoltaic has long had a terrible toxic metal pollution problem that has only recently even been addressed -- imagine ramping it up by a factor of 1000 or more. Building aerogenerators will require a major industrial base, too.

Since I am likely to get asked, I will post more figures and attribution a little later; I have done so many times in the past and continue to study this issue.

Nuclear energy is turning out to be MUCH safer than we thought it would be. It may not be "too cheap to meter" but it is a good deal. It is time to "take back the power" from both the Right and the fear-mongers. I can forgive some, even many of the fear-mongers -- but I give no quarter to the Right. If we are to have even ONE nuclear reactor, the policies and regulations governing it should be in OUR hands, not the clutches of the Neo-Cons.

--p!