LOCKED - OT: Nuclear waste storage in Mississippi....

[Heawww]

I take it many of you have seen this article: http://www.clarionledger.com/articl...nuclear-waste-Talk-storage-Miss-emerges-again

I'm failing to see the bad that can come from this. Bunch of money flowing in, jobs created. This stuff is going to be stored in places like Port Gibson and other remote areas. Sorry if I offend anybody from Port Gibson but come on there's nothing else going on there. It's not like the town is going to become radioactive. I'm assuming that there is a safety plan for accidents/leaks/etc.

 

[AFDawg]

I'd be interested to hear from someone more knowledgable than I about the safety risks involved. My general sense is that people freak out when they hear "nuclear" without much basis in fact.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Agreed. Just give me the facts with reasoning behind it-- on both sides.

 

[patdog]

Nuclear waste has been being stored in Port Gibson for the past 30 years already. I'd be glad to take some more of it for the money it would bring in. I don't see it happening though. There's just too much opposition. Which really makes no sense. All the green groups should be lining up behind nuclear energy. It's by far the most environmentally clean option there is.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Why don't they just bury it in that underground cave they formed when they set off those nukes in Lamar county back in the 60s?

 

[AFDawg]

To mke it football related, would the NCAA allow an offensive lineman with three arms?

 

[BoDawg.sixpack]

Japan thought nuclear energy was a good idea until the Fukushima disaster which was just upgraded on the International Nuclear Event Scale over two years after the tsunami. The truth is we won't know on what level this disaster ranks until it is too late.

 

[patdog]

The truth is, we've had nuclear power for close to 50 years with far less impact on the environment than coal, natural gas, or any other fuel source. No matter how bad Fukushima turns out to be.

 

[Realist.sixpack]

Nuclear waste has been being stored in Port Gibson for the past 30 years already. I'd be glad to take some more of it for the money it would bring in. I don't see it happening though. There's just too much opposition. Which really makes no sense. All the green groups should be lining up behind nuclear energy. It's by far the most environmentally clean option there is.

The spent fuel at Grand Gulf is in a "hardened" swimming pool. When the pool fills, they will move the older spent fuel into "dry casks" (steel and concrete canisters) that will be stored on an open pad within the site boundary.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Chances of getting cancer from just existing are around 20-24%. With Hiroshima and Nagasaki having bombs dropped on them, only somewhere between 0.5% and 1.5% of the deaths can be attributed to radiation-induced cancer. For the 30,000 or so people living near Chernobyl when it melted down, their risk of cancer only increased by about 1.8%. Radiation fear is overblown, people are exposed to natural radiation their entire lives. Even if some of the sites actually leaked, the true effects would be statistically minimal.

Note: All data sourced from "Physics for Future Presidents" by Richard A. Muller (required reading for incoming Freshmen at MSU).

 

[drummerdawg]

I remember when the river flooded a couple years ago it seemed like a pretty big deal then. That would be my concern if I lived there.

 

[Realist.sixpack]

Japan thought nuclear energy was a good idea until the Fukushima disaster which was just upgraded on the International Nuclear Event Scale over two years after the tsunami. The truth is we won't know on what level this disaster ranks until it is too late.

The Japanese plant lacked, among other things, protected emergency diesel generators, passive safety systems and off-site power contingency that are present in plants in this country. The disaster has been studied extensively and lessons learned from Fukushima are being implemented at US plants under Federal regulatory guidance and oversight.

 

[randystewart]

What the US really needs is a nuclear reprocessing facility. That along with storage would be huge for Mississippi. Sadly, we live in a political landscape that is never going to allow reprocessing to happen (for more info google Yucca Mountain, if we cant even address storage we certainly can't address reprocessing/upgrading) . France is over 70% nuclear power with a few reprocessing facilities, and has been accident free. Because of their nuclear power system, France is also the only country who met their Kyoto numbers.

 

[FlabLoser]

What the US really needs is a nuclear reprocessing facility. That along with storage would be huge for Mississippi. Sadly, we live in a political landscape that is never going to allow reprocessing to happen (for more info google Yucca Mountain, if we cant even address storage we certainly can't address reprocessing/upgrading) . France is over 70% nuclear power with a few reprocessing facilities, and has been accident free. Because of their nuclear power system, France is also the only country who met their Kyoto numbers.

^^^^ THIS.

 

[FlabLoser]

Japan thought nuclear energy was a good idea until the Fukushima disaster which was just upgraded on the International Nuclear Event Scale over two years after the tsunami. The truth is we won't know on what level this disaster ranks until it is too late.

The source of Fukushima's problems was the flooding of their backup power generators. It was stupid to 1) build a nuclear power plan on a Pacific coastline, and 2) to not have backup generators in a location that can't be flooded.

 

[WrapItDog]

Would it be smoke free working environment? Getting cancer caused by nuclear waste and not be able to smoke a cig on the job would just be wrong.

 

[Xenomorph]

I thought this was going to be another thread about Chris Jones and recruiting.*

*

 

[fishwater99]

I have never understood why we don't have more nuclear power plants in the USA.

 

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

Chances of getting cancer from just existing are around 20-24%. With Hiroshima and Nagasaki having bombs dropped on them, only somewhere between 0.5% and 1.5% of the deaths can be attributed to radiation-induced cancer. For the 30,000 or so people living near Chernobyl when it melted down, their risk of cancer only increased by about 1.8%. Radiation fear is overblown, people are exposed to natural radiation their entire lives. Even if some of the sites actually leaked, the true effects would be statistically minimal.

Note: All data sourced from "Physics for Future Presidents" by Richard A. Muller (required reading for incoming Freshmen at MSU).

I was going to reference this book but was too lazy to go back and find the numbers. Thanks for doing it for me.

Anyone that wants an interesting read should definitely consider picking up that book. It's eye opening.

 

[TheDuke.sixpack]

Everyone freaks out when you mention the word nuclear. I've been in the nuclear science field for the last 7 years and the concerns are definitely overblown. Are there significant risks? Sure, but it's easy to implement safety measures that minimize the risk. To address nuclear storage specifically, I worked on a project at SRNL on this topic during a summer internship, and the methods they have for storing this stuff are highly reliable and safe. It's not like they're just going to stack drums of waste within a chain-link fence or something.

I could ramble on for hours about what we know, what we assume, and what we don't know about radiation safety, facts from Hiroshima, etc., but suffice it to say that the storage facility, if setup correctly, will pose minimal risk to the surrounding areas.

 

[Jgbishop]

Random but somewhat known fact

The "shed" at the back of the gravel commuter east lot by the trail to Campus Trails use to house a nuclear reactor for State. The placard on the side of the door actually indicates "Nuclear Lab"

There is a storage closet in the basement of Carpenter Hall that has a safe in the floor that held the nuclear waste from said reactor.

 

[WrapItDog]

To mke it football related, would the NCAA allow an offensive lineman with three arms?

The NCAA already has it covered in the rule book. From Wiki**

Section D Article 4: Players with physical deformities:
4.3 Players with three arms are limited to kicking duties only.

The Player with Physical Deformities rule is also known as the Manning Rule. When Ole Miss prize recruit Peyton Manning flipped to Tenn at the urging of his Diddy Archie. It was determined by the NCAA that the Manning's were two faced. This was once again proven true when Archie's youngest son Eli was drafted by the San Diego Charges. Diddy instructed Eli to refuse to play for the Chargers forcing a trade to the New York Giants.

 

[KurtRambis4]

Who's

to say that being contaminated by radioactive material is a bad thing for the citizens of Port Gibson?

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Three Mile Island, China Syndrome, etc. is the reason why...

...and I agree with you.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Speaking of Nuclear Power-- Entergy's closing Vermont's Yankee Nuclear Plant...

Link

 

[drt7891]

Three Mile Island was a classic case of "overengineering" a plant to the point that they had every safety feature known to man, plus redundancies... but no one accounted for the operator. What happened at three mile island could have been totally avoided had the operators sat back in their chairs and done literally nothing... the plant would have corrected itself. The lack of training, visibility, and communication created the incident. Believe me when I say we have learned from that incident.

Chernobyl was designed poorly, built poorly, and resulted from a test the engineers had no business running on third shift with no management present (trying to see if the momentum from the generators could supply enough power to shut down the reactor during the event of a power outage... that same test failed twice before the accident). Blame the soviet's ineptitude and ignorance for that incident.

Nuclear power, in my eyes, is extremely safe... but the American public (particularly those who lived to see 3MIsland and Chernobyl) are scared to death of it.

 

[dawgoneyall]

Liberals.

 

[beachbumdawg]

Entergy also tried to spinoff part or all of their nuclear fleet about 2-3 years ago

 

[Realist.sixpack]

The "shed" at the back of the gravel commuter east lot by the trail to Campus Trails use to house a nuclear reactor for State. The placard on the side of the door actually indicates "Nuclear Lab"

There is a storage closet in the basement of Carpenter Hall that has a safe in the floor that held the nuclear waste from said reactor.

The reactor never operated, so there was no waste to store. The safe is really a shielded vault where radioactive sources were stored.

 

[mstateglfr]

I'm failing to see the bad that can come from this.

I'm assuming that there is a safety plan for accidents/leaks/etc.

You are failing to see the bad because you have filled in your lack of knowledge on the issue with assumtions.




I have absolutely no idea if this would be safe or not, but I do know that if a nuclear waste storage site were to be set up in my town or even within 20miles of my town, we would find a new place to call home.

ETA- The main reason why I would find a new place to call home is housing prices and residential development. I would imagine housing would drop and development would stop. People shouldnt want to live by a nuclear waste storage site, no matter how safe it could potentially be.

 

[johnson86-1]

ETA- The main reason why I would find a new place to call home is housing prices and residential development. I would imagine housing would drop and development would stop. People shouldnt want to live by a nuclear waste storage site, no matter how safe it could potentially be.

Would hate to slow down all the development in Port Gibson or Richton...

 

[mstateglfr]

One of the state's public universities is only 10 miles from Port Gibson.

 

[dawgstudent]

You obviously have never been to Nukie's. 100% proof that radioactive activity has taken place.

 

[JohaneS]

It's pretty obvious that nuclear waste has been a hot topic recently. Actually, I had read several articles regarding about it. Oh! It made me remember about this nuclear waste treatment facility in the south of France which was shaken by a blast. The explosion murdered one and injured four others. French authorities say that no radiation was released in the incident. I'm aware that France gets more of its power from nuclear sources than any nation on the planet. Let me say that radioactive waste is really dangerous not only to most forms of life but also to the environment. Furthermore, it is regulated by government agencies in order to protect human health and the environment as well.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

You know what my research shows? Nuclear energy can bring posts back from the dead.

 

[drt7891]

I Blame Obama** (we can blame Sam Frost while we are at it).

Lock 'er up.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Fact of the day: Mississippi is the only state east of the Mississippi River to have had nuclear weapons detonated in it.