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Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!fred
From: fred@mnetor.UUCP (Fred Williams)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Safety of nuclear submarines -- wastes
Message-ID: <2222@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Sep-85 10:03:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: mnetor.2222
Posted: Thu Sep 19 10:03:40 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 11:16:37 EDT
References: <1386@utcsri.UUCP> <5952@utzoo.UUCP> <820@water.UUCP> <5981@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: fred@mnetor.UUCP (Fred Williams)
Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 39
Summary: 

In article <5981@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> ... But it is
>> definate that if the nuclear waste that we've tucked away already
>> were to leak and become evenly distributed around the earth, that
>> all the higher life forms would perish, and that includes us!
>
>And if all the energy in one atom bomb were carefully distributed in the
>right places, that would suffice to destroy all higher life forms too.
>But we were discussing realistic situations, not grossly contrived ones.

    Who is going to baby-sit this stuff for thew next 1000 centuries?
Are you volunteering Henry?  People will forget where it is! People
will forget what nation put it there.  People will forget what the
danger markers mean. People will dig it up and scatter it all around
before they know what's hit them.  A few will die within a few days
and the rest will figure out what has happened, (*IF* they still
understand what radiation means), and try to contain things. But
there is a long time to wait. How many times will the sites be
forgotten, and re-discovered?  It is not at all unrealistic that
much of this material will find it's way into the environment in
which we live.  The levels of radiation at that point will be 
high enough to destroy the human gene pool. 

    This does not mean that I think other forms of pollution are
unimportant, but we have to start making decisions in a responsible
manner about all of our large scale activities.

    If we don't know what to do with nuclear wastes, we have no
business creating them!

    Yes I know I've been expounding on this quite a lot lately
and I'm preparing to shut up soon.  But every time I see someone
calling my reasoning grossly contrived my blood pressure goes up a
few notches. Have a nice day, Henry(:-)>

-- 
Cheers,      Fred Williams,
UUCP: {allegra, linus, ihnp4}!utzoo!mnetor!fred
BELL: (416)-475-8980 ext. 318