| Although hundreds of billions of taxpayerâs dollars
have been spent over the past 50 years to develop and promote nuclear energy
systems, rather than solving the diminishing fossil fuel problem, nuclear
technology has instead created a vastly more profound problem of its own
-- radioactive waste. The radioactive waste problem is especially insidious
because it is virtually impossible to contain, and it is invisible to the
human senses until disease or death occurs. Radioactive isotopes spread
in an ecosystem like red dye spreads in a glass of water, and some isotopes,
such as Neptunium-237, Cesium-135 and Iodine-129, have half-lives of over
a million years. In the case of Iodine-129, its half-life of 16 million
years means it must be sequestered from the natural environment for over
160 million years. Assuming a single maintenance technician earning $50,000
a year is considered, the cost over time would be $8 trillion, the vast
majority of which will be paid for by billions of taxpayers in the future
for over a million centuries.
Iodine-129
Iodine-129 is a particularly toxic isotope to humans and other mammals
because iodine is an essential nutritional element. As such, the microbes
in the body selectively extract iodine from food, water and the air. Once
acquired, the iodine is then stored in the thyroid gland. The problem
is that radioactive and non-radioactive iodine are identical from a chemical
viewpoint, thus the bodyâs microorganisms do not distinguish between
the two elements, storing either in the thyroid. If the iodine is radioactive,
it will result in fatal thyroid cancer. Because Iodine-129 is highly toxic
for such a long period of time, and because it is highly mobile through
both engineered and natural-sediment systems, it is one of the key radionuclides
that the Department of Energy (DOE) seeks to control. The high mobility
problem is due to Iodine-129âs anionic nature that causes it to be
repulsed from negatively-charged surfaces, which dominate essentially all
materials. In spite of the fact that billions of dollars have been expended
over the past 50 years to try and contain such isotopes, according to investigators
at DOEâs Savannah River site, there has still been little actual
testing of proposed containment systems. According to the EPA (The New
York Times, March 28, 1991), the engineers who built the nuclear weapons
in the 1950âs dumped over 127 million gallons of highly radioactive
waste containing Iodine-129, into the ground just a few miles from the
Columbia River, the 4th largest river system in the U.S., which flows into
the Pacific Ocean.
Because of the vast array of unresolved technical issues, there is still
no long-term storage facility for radioactive wastes and virtually all
of the existing temporary waste storage facilities are full and in many
cases, out of control in terms of their ability to prevent the radioactive
wastes from leaking and spreading into the environment. This "spreading"
problem occurs because of the heat and corrosion creates cracks in the
waste storage tanks. There is also the fact that once irradiated, materials
change their nature as their atoms become unstable. This is why the storage
vessels which contain the radioactive wastes are only reliable for relatively
short periods of time. Eventually, the containers also become radioactive.
Indeed, the longer a nuclear reactor operates, the more radioactive it
becomes, which is why any repair or maintenance of aging nuclear reactors
is an extraordinarily hazardous task. Given these unresolved and financially
irresponsible waste storage problems, and given that every nuclear reactor
is a ãtime-bombä that will be eventually triggered by corrosion,
such plants need to be decommissioned with wartime speed. For information
on how to rapidly decommission the existing nuclear power plants in the
U.S., refer to the ãphoenixproject.netä website.
Harry Braun
Chairman
Hydrogen Political Action Committee
6128 North 28th Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85016
Telephone: (602) 977-0888
Email: hb@phoenixproject.net |
