[Rhodes22-list] The Hydrogen Economy

[Wally Buck]

I live about 25 miles from Oak Ridge National Lab.

http://www.ornl.gov/

For those of you that don't know Oak Ridge is known as the Atomic City and 
was the birth place of our very first Atomic Weapons. It is one of the 
leading Atomic Research facilities in the World today. Oak Ridge was a 
"secret city" created and built by the US Government and was not even listed 
on maps for the first years of its existence. The Lab's initial purpose was 
builidng atomic warheads. Now it spends more time managing waste and doing 
research.

Many of my firends are employed at ORNL some in direct overisght positions 
with DOE. One of ORNL's main concerns now is dealing with the storage of 
waste from way back when. The transportation and long term storage of waste 
is still a real problem in their eyes and they are in the "business". People 
should be spooked because the dangers are real. The reality is the waste is 
not handled by "Government" employees but rather government contracters 
managed by the DOE. For years Martin Marrietta managed the Lab. Prior to M&M 
  it was Union Carbide. These big companies in turn contract smaller 
companies. Bechtel - Jacobs has the contract now. The safety and storage is 
awarded to the lowest bidder that meets the specs.

We had an area shut down here just last year because of a "leaky waste" tail 
following a truck leaving ORNL headed for a disposal facility. I have a very 
close friend (sails a Sea Pearl) who is pretty high up in DOE oversight. He 
is the guy that makes sure the various companies follow procedures. When 
accidents happens he signs off on the report for DOE. I ask him how 
something like this could happen and he just shakes his head and says "if 
you only knew...".

On the plus side once the leak was detected the road was closed. They 
literally removed the road and the ground underneath and replaced with new. 
No one was hurt. I still think nuke can be good but I am not convinced that 
the transportation and long term storage problems are well in hand.

Wally


>From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] The Hydrogen Economy
>Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 05:16:37 -0500
>
>Rummy,
>
>The Yuka Mountain Repository is nearly ready to recieve all the high level
>nuclear waste that all the nuclear power reactors, nuclear weapons
>production, and medical waste have produced since the mid 1940's.  The
>transportation issues with the the trains, trucks, and massively armored
>casks have all been worked out.  People are so spooked by this issue they
>don't even want to have a rational discussion about it.  The technology for
>long term nuclear waste disposal is well in hand.  People just need to 
>stand
>aside and let it happen.
>
>Roger Pihlaja
>S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <R22RumRunner at aol.com>
>To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 7:36 PM
>Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] The Hydrogen Economy
>
>
> > Roger,
> > It's just that kind of attitude that got us into this mess in the first
> > place. We'll just build the damn things and worry about getting rid of 
>the
>toxic
> > waste later. Well, this is later.
> >
> > Rummy
> > __________________________________________________
> > Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
> >
> >
>
>
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