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- Newsgroups: talk.environment
- Path: sparky!uunet!pmafire!russ
- From: russ@pmafire.inel.gov (Russ Brown)
- Message-ID: <1992Jul21.175655.2854@pmafire.inel.gov>
- Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 17:56:55 GMT
- Organization: WINCO
- Subject: Re: NEWS: DOE Plans to Build New Savannah River Reprocessing Facility
- Summary:
- References: <Greenpeace.19Jul1992.9pm1@naughty-peahen.org>
- Followup-To:
- Organization: WINCO
- Keywords:
- Lines: 48
-
- In article <Greenpeace.19Jul1992.9pm1@naughty-peahen.org> jym@mica.berkeley.edu (Greenpeace via Jym Dyer) writes:
- >[Greenpeace Press Release from Greenbase -- Redistribute Freely]
- >
- >DOCUMENT OBTAINED BY GREENPEACE REVEALS DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY PLAN
- >TO BUILD NEW NUCLEAR REPROCESSING FACILITY AT SAVANNAH RIVER SITE
- >
- > Greenpeace Calls for Planning of Plutonium Factory to Halt
- >
- >ATLANTA June 26, 1992 (GP) A Department of Energy (DOE)
- >document obtained by Greenpeace under the Freedom of Information
- >Act reveals that the U.S. Department of Energy has quietly begun
- >planning for the construction of a new reprocessing facility at
- >the Savannah River Site (SRS).
- >
- > The new facility, called the "Canyon Consolidation
- >project," would replace two aging reprocessing buildings, the
- >F- and H- canyons, which are currently out of operation due to
- >extensive problems. Reprocessing is the extraction of plutonium
- >and uranium from nuclear fuel, or other irradiated materials,
- >removed from nuclear reactors. Plutonium at SRS has been
- >reprocessed from "target" elements exposed to the nuclear
- >reaction in the K-Reactor and other on-site reactors.
- >
- stuff deleted
- >
- > (GP) Clements added that "Operation of this facility will only
- >lead to discharge of more high level nuclear waste, for which no
- >method of safe disposal exists. ^^^^^^^^^^^^
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
- If one accepts, for the moment, this generic silly statement, consider
- the implications of the GP statement found below:
-
- > Greenpeace feels that plutonium should be treated as
- >nuclear waste and disposed of, rather than being purified and
- >stockpiled.
-
- So if we take GP at their word, they would rather dispose of nuclear
- waste containing:
-
- a. hundreds or thousands of critical masses of plutonium-239
- b. a substantial energy resource
-
- and in the bargain, convert high-level waste disposal with a integrated
- hazardous life of centuries to a transuranic waste with one of hundreds
- of millenia.
-
- We should be encouraged by their knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
-