Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 3/23/84; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!cbosgd!rbg From: rbg@cbosgd.UUCP (Richard Goldschmidt) Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics Subject: Re: Re: Lockport Blast: safety of oil vs nuclear power Message-ID: <200@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Sat, 4-Aug-84 11:12:07 EDT Article-I.D.: cbosgd.200 Posted: Sat Aug 4 11:12:07 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 5-Aug-84 06:26:47 EDT References: <338@tellab1.UUCP> <1588@druxv.UUCP>, <651@teltone.UUCP>, <4146@utzoo.UUCP> <447@tty3b.UUCP> <805@ihuxx.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus Lines: 21 >the means to get rid of the worst of the nasty long-lived radioactives >in the waste fuel has been tested. It involves building high-energy >accelerators to, essentially, transmute the materials and hasten >their decay. The problem is that you're talking about an industrial >accelerator, not a scientific test tool. To build ones big enough, >reliable enough, and safe enough to process power-plant waste, it >would take a massive, multi-megabuck building program RIGHT NOW to >process this country's wastes by 2000. >Dave Ihnat ihuxx!ignatz There is another alternative way of eliminating nuclear wastes: lift them off the planet into space, and aim them for the sun. It is imperative to package them in such a way that the container will withstand any kind of launch failure and still be recoverable, but the technology exists now, without a major building program or long delay. As the costs of lifting into orbit goes down, this may well be feasible for many kinds of highly toxic wastes. Rich Goldschmidt UUCP: {ucbvax|ihnp4|decvax|allegra}!cbosgd!rbg ARPA: cbosgd!rbg@Berkeley.ARPA