science
Posted by John Tauxe on April 26, 1999 at 13:31:24:In Reply to: Sound Facility? posted by Joan Seeman on April 10, 1999 at 23:39:55:
Joan -
See also my long missive entitled "bias" in response to one of your other comments on my comment.
Also, let me say that I appreciate this forum in which to debate. Thank you, CCNS! No kidding.
"Dump" vs "Repository" -- That is pure semantics. Dump just conjures up images of throwing it in the holler, where a repository sounds like a highly engineered facility. Just words.
If you did not think that there was a potential brine problem at WIPP, you have not been following its development too closely. This is an old problem, and can be manipulated to drive it way out of proportion. It is only a problem under a rather fanciful but arguably possible scenario. Not too likely, and not a huge problem even if it does happen, really.
TRU Mixed Waste Incinerator - I lived for four years five miles downwind of the nation's only operating and permitted mixed waste incinerator, and neither I nor my children glow in the dark. These things CAN be run responsibly. If people are not allowed to experiment with treatment options, then how can there EVER be a pth forward for this waste? If no further research is allowed, then it really is best to bury it at WIPP.
Well, yes, I am confident in science. I am not confident in public policy, or religion, or hunches, or gut feelings when it comes to decisions of this magnitude. I understand geology, materials science, nuclear science, hydrology, civil engineering, and basic chemistry, physics, and biology. How 'bout you?
I would love to join the Sierra Club's Nuclear Waste Task Force (being a member of the Club), and have written the members offering my expertise. They have not written back -- why do you suppose that is? Am I a more informed environmentalist than they? Are they afraid of my open views? Do they prefer to stick their heads in the sand? Do my views not coincide with their predetermined agenda? I expect that you know some of these folks, Joan, and would appreciate some response from them.
My choice of real scientists includes a friend who served on the National Academy of Sciences panel for WIPP. He was a kind, compassionate, and eminently competent biologist, who, sad to say, did not live to see WIPP open. His off the record opinion was "Just open the damned thing!"