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Gold/Mining/Energy : CPN: Calpine Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jack bittner who wrote (78)	6/5/2001 9:26:24 AM
From: Mark Fleming	Respond to of 555

Jack, here are just two of many, many articles on the myths of nuclear waste problems. The facts on half-lives and the actual quantity and categories of nuclear waste described below are well supported by scientific documents. I prefer to believe science over the lying environmental extremists any day. You can choose to believe the greenies and papers such as the NY Times if you wish. Let's close this discussion and both get back to investing. Exploding Anti-nuclear Myths Part 2- "High Level Nuclear Waste Threatens Human Life for 250,000 Years" oer.homestead.com A common canard thrown out by the anti-nuclear industry is that high level nuclear waste threatens life and must be stored for a quarter of a million years. Like almost all statements from the anti-nuclear howler monkeys, it is rhetorically impressive but not particularly meaningful. These folks, having whipped themselves into an ideological frenzy, have convinced great swathes of people -including scientifically illiterate politicians- that this reason alone makes nuclear energy and waste intolerable. This article seeks to put nuclear waste in perspective by examining the actual risks posed by the stuff. Common myths . . . Is Nuclear Waste A Huge Problem? ans.neep.wisc.edu One of the main reasons for publishing this letter is to add a healthy dose of reality to the mythology that has surrounded the atomic energy field. There are so many of these myths that this column will be a regular feature of the Atomic Energy Insights. One of the most prevalent myths is that nuclear fission produces large quantities of waste that will be dangerous for thousands of years. This is simply not true. The longest lived fission products will become stable elements within just a few hundred years. The longest lived fission product has a half life of about 30 years. The total amount of waste material is extremely small. All of the high level waste produced in the United States in the last 30 years could fit onto a single football field in a single layer of licensed storage containers. Where, then, did the prevailing myth originate? Most myths have some basis in the real world of facts and observations