Yucca Mountain- How To Poison Yourself:
February 5th 2008 03:32
Perhaps best known for being fantastic environmental procrastinators, human beings have yet again begun a project to take something harmful and dangerous and ignore it until it comes back and bites them in the face. Yucca Mountain - the nuclear repository, has been a subject of much debate in the business, legal and environmental worlds in the past many years and for good reason! Here's the general concept behind Yucca Mountain:
1. Take a mountain we are fairly certain won't explode or collapse.
2. Dig deep into the mountain and use all kinds of alloys to reinforce the insides of the mountain.
3. Create holding chambers for immense amounts of highly radioactive waste.
4. Deposit and leave radioactive waste in chambers forever.
Naturally I have shortened and summarized the actual depth of the project. Much more thought and caring has gone into the building and planning of Yucca Mountain. Yet could any level of planning for something as insane as this really qualify the project? I think not.
This is unfortunately, only the latest chapter in a trend of general human ignorance. We encounter a problem such as "Nuclear Waste" and our greatest minds conclude that our best course of action is to bury it somewhere? Seems like this plan runs disturbingly along the lines of dogs and bones!
My vested interest in Yucca Mountain is not however - my next vacation spot or a personal love of the state of Nevada. In fact, I've never been to Nevada and from the looks of the stock photos, am not planning a visit anytime soon. My grave fear and concern comes instead from history.
As textbooks and protests have taught us - hastily drawn plans to delay the impact of our own wasteful lifestyle tend to have unfavorable effects on us years down the road. Despite our painful mistakes however we seem to truly learn our lesson. Things like "Lead Paint", "Toxic Crayons", "Asbestos" or perhaps just "New Orleans"?
No - humans know no bounds to their convenient forgetfulness or desire to makeshift a solution to a larger problem than they are willing to take on. This is no exception and certainly not the last time you will hear of Yucca Mountain.
My fear is not the mountain. It's not even the surrounding land. My fear is in the water and the vast overconfidence of human engineering. Consider the implications of a mistake that leads to the radioactive material stored in Yucca Mountain reaching the water table! The entire south west would be at extreme risk for an incredibly long duration of time.
If I remember my chemistry correctly the shelf-life for most nuclear waste will outlast us for generations to come.
Thus the contents of Yucca Mountain, so plentifully supplied by U.S industry will sit, constantly building in quantity deep under our soil and waiting for a convenient accident to put an ironic twist into the fabric of U.S History.
"Yucca Mountain! Spiking The American Punch Since 2021"
1. Take a mountain we are fairly certain won't explode or collapse.
2. Dig deep into the mountain and use all kinds of alloys to reinforce the insides of the mountain.
3. Create holding chambers for immense amounts of highly radioactive waste.
4. Deposit and leave radioactive waste in chambers forever.
Naturally I have shortened and summarized the actual depth of the project. Much more thought and caring has gone into the building and planning of Yucca Mountain. Yet could any level of planning for something as insane as this really qualify the project? I think not.
This is unfortunately, only the latest chapter in a trend of general human ignorance. We encounter a problem such as "Nuclear Waste" and our greatest minds conclude that our best course of action is to bury it somewhere? Seems like this plan runs disturbingly along the lines of dogs and bones!
My vested interest in Yucca Mountain is not however - my next vacation spot or a personal love of the state of Nevada. In fact, I've never been to Nevada and from the looks of the stock photos, am not planning a visit anytime soon. My grave fear and concern comes instead from history.
As textbooks and protests have taught us - hastily drawn plans to delay the impact of our own wasteful lifestyle tend to have unfavorable effects on us years down the road. Despite our painful mistakes however we seem to truly learn our lesson. Things like "Lead Paint", "Toxic Crayons", "Asbestos" or perhaps just "New Orleans"?
No - humans know no bounds to their convenient forgetfulness or desire to makeshift a solution to a larger problem than they are willing to take on. This is no exception and certainly not the last time you will hear of Yucca Mountain.
My fear is not the mountain. It's not even the surrounding land. My fear is in the water and the vast overconfidence of human engineering. Consider the implications of a mistake that leads to the radioactive material stored in Yucca Mountain reaching the water table! The entire south west would be at extreme risk for an incredibly long duration of time.
If I remember my chemistry correctly the shelf-life for most nuclear waste will outlast us for generations to come.
Thus the contents of Yucca Mountain, so plentifully supplied by U.S industry will sit, constantly building in quantity deep under our soil and waiting for a convenient accident to put an ironic twist into the fabric of U.S History.
"Yucca Mountain! Spiking The American Punch Since 2021"
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