nuclear-news

Philippines not convinced that nuclear waste is safe

Uncertainties surrounding nuclear waste  By Nelson D. Laviña,Philippine Daily InquirerFirst   03/04/2010 “.…During his last press conference, Cojuangco presented an expert, a Swiss engineer, who condescendingly told the Filipino people not to fear nuclear energy; nuclear waste could simply be buried. We would like to share with the public some facts and data on nuclear energy and radioactive waste……..In the words of Francois Chenevier, director of the French nuclear waste agency Andra, “it would be irresponsible for us to benefit from nuclear power and leave it to later generations to deal with the waste.” Yet that has already occurred. While nuclear reactors generate electricity for 25-40 years, their radioactive legacy will remain for hundreds of thousand of years.

Unfortunately, the problem of radioactive waste cannot be “solved” in the normal fashion. Waste cannot be destroyed, nor can scientists prove that it will stay out of the biosphere if buried. Proof, via the scientific method, requires experimentation to confirm a hypothesis. But with radioactive waste, such an experiment would require gambling with people’s lives over hundreds of human generations…..

The scientific uncertainties surrounding radioactive waste burial are enormous. According to a 1990 NCR report on radioactive waste disposal, the needed long-term quantitative predictions stretch the limits of human understanding in several areas of geology and groundwater movement and chemistry. The report also notes that: “Studies done over the past two decades have led to the realization that the phenomena are complicated than had been thought. Rather than decreasing our uncertainty, this line of research has increased the number of ways in which we know that we are uncertain.”

Uncertainties surrounding nuclear waste – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

March 5, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation