|
|
Stay Away From Idaho?
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Working. What about you?
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Outfield - #24
Status:
Offline
|
|
Damn, there go my favorite baked potatoes and french fries.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: ~/
Status:
Offline
|
|
Plutonium 238 is good for generating electricity in closed systems, space craft, etc. Not good for fission weapons.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: The bottom of Cloud City
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Cadaver
Plutonium
|
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: MacNN database error. Please refresh your browser.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Has anyone been to Idaho?
|
This is a computer-generated message and needs no signature.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Bellevue, WA
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Randman
Has anyone been to Idaho?
I had. Pretty nice up there, esp. Coeur d'Alene.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, MN, USA
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Yamanashi, Japan
Status:
Offline
|
|
Theres a reason no one lives in Idaho. A very good reason.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Working. What about you?
Status:
Offline
|
|
Seriously, if this was being done near you wouldn't it make you nervous? I wouldn't like it. Idaho is pretty empty. Maybe that's why they're doing this there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: MacNN database error. Please refresh your browser.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Cody, do you have any idea how many big cities are surrounded by nuclear bombs, nuclear powerplants and nuclear waste?
|
This is a computer-generated message and needs no signature.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Outfield - #24
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Randman
Cody, do you have any idea how many big cities are surrounded by nuclear bombs, nuclear powerplants and nuclear waste?
....and weapons of mass destruction?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Working. What about you?
Status:
Offline
|
|
It's not quite the same.
The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 - a highly radioactive substance valued as a power source - since the Cold War, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. It is hot enough to melt plastic and so dangerous that a speck can cause cancer.
Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds, or 150 kilograms, over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The program could cost $1.5 billion and generate more than 50,000 drums of hazardous and radioactive waste.
Project managers say that most if not all of the new plutonium is intended for secret missions and declined to divulge any details.
"The real reason we're starting production is for national security," Timothy Frazier, head of radioisotope power systems at the Department of Energy, said at the end of a recent interview.
He vigorously denied that any of the classified missions would involve nuclear arms, satellites or weapons in space.
But the secrecy is adding to unease in Wyoming, where environmentalists are scrutinizing the production plan - made public late Friday - and considering whether to fight it. They say the production effort is a potential threat to nearby ecosystems, including Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and the area around Jackson Hole, famous for its billionaires, celebrities and weekend cowboys, including Vice President Dick Cheney.
"It's completely wrapped in the flag," said Mary Woollen-Mitchell, executive director of Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, a group based in Jackson Hole. "They absolutely won't let on" about the missions.
Plutonium 238 has no central role in nuclear arms. Instead, it is valued for its steady heat, which can be turned into electricity.
The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 - a highly radioactive substance valued as a power source - since the Cold War, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. It is hot enough to melt plastic and so dangerous that a speck can cause cancer.
Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds, or 150 kilograms, over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The program could cost $1.5 billion and generate more than 50,000 drums of hazardous and radioactive waste.
Project managers say that most if not all of the new plutonium is intended for secret missions and declined to divulge any details.
"The real reason we're starting production is for national security," Timothy Frazier, head of radioisotope power systems at the Department of Energy, said at the end of a recent interview.
He vigorously denied that any of the classified missions would involve nuclear arms, satellites or weapons in space.
But the secrecy is adding to unease in Wyoming, where environmentalists are scrutinizing the production plan - made public late Friday - and considering whether to fight it. They say the production effort is a potential threat to nearby ecosystems, including Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and the area around Jackson Hole, famous for its billionaires, celebrities and weekend cowboys, including Vice President Dick Cheney.
"It's completely wrapped in the flag," said Mary Woollen-Mitchell, executive director of Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, a group based in Jackson Hole. "They absolutely won't let on" about the missions.
Plutonium 238 has no central role in nuclear arms. Instead, it is valued for its steady heat, which can be turned into electricity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: MacNN database error. Please refresh your browser.
Status:
Offline
|
|
1/2 a kilo per year for the stuff which is used in power plants for nuke subs and the like, not arms.
So?
|
This is a computer-generated message and needs no signature.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Working. What about you?
Status:
Offline
|
|
Does it bother you that a SPECK will cause cancer?
Seriously, think terrorism.
I see a whole new screenplay there, actually.
Directed by Ridley Scott, no less.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: USA
Status:
Offline
|
|
Doesn't bother me at all, no.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Regular
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Princeton, NJ
Status:
Offline
|
|
I-da-HO.
NO, NO, Wait a minute...
You-da-HO!
(+1 pimp syle)
|
iBook G4 12"/640/60/Combo/AE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Banned
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Indy.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
Does it bother you that a SPECK will cause cancer?
Would you rather we maintain our dependence on foreign oil.
Nuclear energy is extremely clean, unlike even in recent history where nuclear energy was largely unknown and unsafe.
I think it's a good thing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Boston, MA
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Cadaver
Plutonium 238 is good for generating electricity in closed systems, space craft, etc. Not good for fission weapons.
I certainly hope that it will assist with our every increasing need for electricity. This country needs to get back to nuclear energy. Everything in life has its risks. More electricity with less atmosphere pollution.
|
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." Winston Churchill
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: :ИOITAↃO⅃
Status:
Offline
|
|
Idaho is a beautiful state. I've run the lovely Middle Fork of the Salmon River many times. It's a real treasure. Hopefully this project will be well-conducted, unlike 95% of the federal nuclear programs of the past 60 years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Working. What about you?
Status:
Offline
|
|
Idaho is beautiful, yes.
Makes me want to eat baked potatoes whenever I think of Idaho, however.
Mithras - is that you?
!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Toronto, ON
Status:
Offline
|
|
One of the best pizzas I've ever had was from a little place in Sandpoint, ID. Heck, someone here on MacNN is from there. Great place to go boating and swimming.
Originally Posted by Railroader
Nuclear energy is extremely clean, unlike even in recent history where nuclear energy was largely unknown and unsafe.
"Clean"
|
The Lord said 'Peter, I can see your house from here.'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Utah
Status:
Offline
|
|
I used to live in Idaho Falls. I worked at the DoE site listed in the article (which is like the only employment in Idaho Falls, unless you work for the Mormon church or something). The INL is on a huge, stable geological formation that makes it... ideal for these works. There is a massive underground aquifer, however, that slowly filters through that formation -- which poses a problem for ground spills. The site is currenly cleaning up all the crap that nuclear engineers dumped there before 1970. They used to just drive trucks full of contaminated materials into holes in the ground and bury them
That being said, this program doesn't sound like such a bad idea, depending on what they want to use it for. I imagine it would be as an engergy source of some kind... it would be perfect for heating up water to make hydrogen, which would fit in with Bush's "hydrogen economy" plan (queue up clean vehicles and such). Yes, the waste is toxic, but all engery waste is toxic -- at least this waste is containable (unlike, say, coal fire plants).
Bush scheduled the entire site to be decomissioned by 2012 in his first year of office. I imagine that this program is a kickback for the republican senators and congressmen (Simpson and Craig, IIRC), because Idaho Falls would become a ghost town without the INL; not to mention that this red-state's budget is constantly having problems -- and it receives something like $1.30 back for every dollar it sends to the feds.
Despite all that, the state is awesome. We had 12 ski areas within 2 hour drive from our house, and most of them were only like $20 for a day pass (with no lines). You could mountain bike in minutes from your house. I don't fish much, but everyone I knew that fished loved it there as well. It's a bucolic paradise.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Baltimore, MD
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
Does it bother you that a SPECK will cause cancer?
Can not will. There's a big difference there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Banned
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Indy.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by ReggieX
"Clean"
What do you think causes more pollution; gasoline and coal to run the powerplants or nuclear energy?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Interstellar Overdrive
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Regular
Join Date: Apr 2003
Status:
Offline
|
|
Pas fazed. Really, if it's going towards electricity all of us can definitely use it. Even if something goes wrong maybe it'll take out some of the white supremacists I live by, or perhaps we'll create an even tastier potato.
Anyways Cody, if you're worried about this don't look into the Umatilla depot. I would say the harm that the production of Plutonium 238 may cause is miniscule compared to what would happen if something went wrong at the depot.
And ReggieX, is this Zany's pizza you speak of?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Status:
Offline
|
|
Thats a funny concept. But you read the thing, they actually believe that there isnt an Idaho. Funny. Someone who lives in Idaho just visited my family for a week, and my brother is going to college in Idaho. I think that maybe we should ship those guys off to Moscow or Idaho Falls...
|
"In a world without walls or fences, what need have we for windows or gates?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: BFE
Status:
Offline
|
|
Oh, great! ANOTHER reason to stay out of Idaho!
|
I'm a bird. I am the 1% (of pets).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Rules
|
|
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|