I am not sure what is more dangerous for the
environment, oil spills or radiation leaks, but
the NIMBY syndrome is not uncommon ;-)
I guess the two main problems are
a) catatrophic accidents like Chernobyl and
Fukushima can not be ruled out completely
b) there is no final storage place or ultimate
radioactive waste repository
Chernobyl happend 25 years ago, and a large region
around the nuclear power plant is still uninhabitable.
Some isotopes of plutonium have a radioactive
half-life of a million years.
I have read today in the newspapers than Japan
stores the used nuclear fuel rods near the nuclear
reactors, because it has no final storage place
for them. The US has no final repository, either.
Nuclear waste generated in the U.S. is stored similar
to Japan at or near one of the 121 facilities across
the country where it is generated, see http://bit.ly/dPF3Vt
In Germany, a town named Gorleben at the edge of
the country was selected as a storage unit for
radioactive waste when the country was still divided
into West and East Germany. Then the unification
came, and suddenly the repository was in the center
of the country, and the NIMBY syndrome appeared:
nobody wanted to be the final storage place for
radioactive waste.
The NIMBY problem is similar to the free rider
problem for public goods: in the former case,
nobody wants to have the public "evil", in
the latter case everybody wants to profit from
a public good without paying for it.
-J.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gillian Densmore" <gil.densm...@gmail.com>
To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <friam@redfish.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 12:18 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Apocalypse in Japan
in the US the problem isn't just saftey it's NIMBY. (not in my back
yard). I'm far far far from being an expert on whats bog standard
practice to store spent rods. That being said the very few physics
i've talked to have said right off theoreticly you could store spent
cells just abount anywhere sighting that these days that you get more
exposer to harmful radiation over the course of a cross countery plane
trip than about a year of 'leaked' radiation from spent rods. IF it's
politicly viable to store Japans spent rods i'd think they'd apraciat
any assistance at all. As to news papers: meh. i'm not sure nuclear
has THAT much of loby strength more likely that it's wall street
journal taking a conservative tone to writing.(caveat: i haven't read
any news papers re: the situation in japan). Just as a side note: you
do realize that ironicly oil spills cause more environmental damage
radiation leaks?
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