09.28.08
Nuclear Waste
Like many people, I watched the Presidential debate last Friday. While it wasn’t the most exciting debate, it did reveal some things to me that I wasn’t clear on such as the stance on nuclear energy by both McCain and Obama. I was originally under the impression that McCain was for nuclear energy and Obama was not in favor of nuclear energy, but Obama clearly stated during the debate that he was “not” against nuclear energy. While I realize that it’s not likely that the use and development of nuclear energy will go away, I was hoping that our future would not increase the use and development of nuclear energy until they figured out a way how to “safely” dispose of the nuclear wastes. I am concerned with what I’ve read about nuclear wastes and the problems with disposal and storage of it. Actually, I first became aware of the problems when I developed AA in 1999 and was doing research on the causes of AA.
I enjoy many modern luxuries just as much as the next person, but had rarely considered at what cost we use these luxuries. As I did more reading up on radiation, I started to become aware that it’s not only at the nuclear power plants that we are exposed to radiation, but actually varying levels of it is everywhere, and we really can’t completely escape it. What I had not realized is how much closer it is to us than I ever knew and how damaging radiation can be even at low levels. Not long after I started this blog, I even started a small series on some of the info I had learned about radiation, but never really finished what I wanted to write about. The first of my post on it can be read here. I managed to write up 5 parts total, which continue on into posts I made in November 2006 Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5, but stopped short of the more controversial aspects of our use of nuclear materials in favor of more pleasant things going on in my life at the time. But the recent presidential debate reminded me of an article I read a few days ago called, Nuclear Waste Piles Up at Hospitals by SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press Writer dated September 25, 2008. Here’s a little clip of it:
“BARNWELL, S.C. – Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs.”
The full article can be read here.
One tidbit of trivia that I found in the above article answered a question I had a while ago when during my AA recovery I had wondered “what do they use to irradiate our blood products?” I called the blood bank and asked the lead guy there, but the only answer I got was that they use low level radiation. No other specifics were given. Apparently, from the article above they use cobalt or powdered cesium. The answer seemed simple enough. Why didn’t the guy at the blood bank just tell me that? Security issues? Ignorance? Hmmm.
When I was diagnosed with AA in 1999, Brian and I researched the causes for AA and from that we stumbled upon some info on depleted uranium. Even before the first Gulf War, there had been concern about the safety of depleted uranium used in the U.S. and U.K. military’s munitions and armored shielding. Claims were made that radiation from the uranium 236 used in the munitions and shielding were causing an increase in cancers, leukemias, and other genetic mutations among the civilians and particularly the young children. Children were being born severely mutated to the point that they could not survive. The Presidential debate reminded me of my old concern about this nuclear energy and its wastes so I did a quick search on it to see what new developments have come about. I came across a blog embedded with an interesting video called, The Doctor: Depleted Uranium and Dying Children. I have no way to verify this information first hand, so for now have to just go with my gut instincts on this one from the things I’ve read and understand about depleted uranium (DU). That along with reading about the history of U.S. military actions, I am inclined to think it is true and am very saddened that there does not seem to be much interest or care about this at all among the general public. I see this video and wonder, “Where is the outcry? Where is the compassion?”
Marlakins
