Are Our Nuclear Waste Sites Safe in the United States – Where Should I Live?
Nuclear disposal is a serious issue indeed, but luckily new future technology appears to be ready to go which will allow those spent fuel rods to be used down to under 5%, that mean we will have a lot less waste to deal with, and it means that old plants can sell their spent fuel rods to new plants which can then use that material even more, almost like getting free fuel, perhaps the ultimate in recycling schemes. Still, there have been some unfortunate stories of ground water contamination from runoff of nuclear storage facilities in the past, and so it might be worthy to discuss this.
Not long ago, I was discussing the challenges of all this and what it meant for those who wished to live near or downstream from such facilities. Yes, it is a concern for many. So, where is the safest place in the US to live? Well, I’d always considered the coast line mountain range where the redwood trees grow somewhere between Humboldt County CA and Mid Oregon, but what about the radiation fallout from Japan, it has blown across the Pacific Ocean. Well, sure but due to precipitation most falls back into the ocean along the way. Okay what about the ocean debris and radiated water in that normal ocean current? Yes, something to watch, and I perhaps would go around collecting Japanese debris which has floated over here, you never know.
How about the Hanford WA site? What about fires potentially making it all airborne? Well, I seriously wouldn’t worry about the coastline area where I noted was the safest, as the wind patterns flow either South or East depending on the season, so the coastline between Eureka CA and Mid Oregon at an elevation of 350 feet or higher, perhaps at the top of the range between I-5 and the coast where there is a lake would be best. It should be fine even if the Hanford WA site had a major leakage becoming airborne.
There have been reports of radiation leaking into the upper Colorado River from Moab UT, also ground water leakage in Kentucky. Some are worried about underground ground water outside of Yucca Mountain NV, the proverbial 100-year flood and saturated ground water. Should we all be alarmed? Well, remember our government is somewhat anal when it comes to nuclear waste and the conspiracy theorist environmental crowd goes overboard such as in Moab UT, Yucca Mountain NV and Kentucky.
That’s not to say that they aren’t terrorist targets or they don’t have folks going out of their way to prove a point as that is always an issue. Still, the public should also realize that with all the environmental groups out there causing a stink, and the regulatory agencies watching like hawks, that things are not as dangerous as they’ve been made out to be. Please consider all this and think on it.
