A Nuclear dump in my backyard? Swedish town is begging for it!

[Chuck]

Swedes now fear CO2 more than radiation.

John Tagliabue - NYTIMES - Apr 5, 2010

This town may be radiant in more ways than one. --Ed.

...Sweden, which swore off nuclear power after less than 20 percent of Swedes approved of it in a referendum in the 1980s, would seem an unlikely place for such a competition. But it has reversed course recently and plans to begin building new nuclear reactors, adding to the 10 it already operates.

But legislation requires that before any new plants can be built, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, better known by the initials SKB, must first create permanent storage space for the radioactive waste the reactors produce.

In most countries, of course, people would sooner allow a factory hog farm or garbage incinerator in their backyards than a nuclear waste dump. But in Sweden, SKB found 18 of 20 possible towns near proposed sites intrigued by their proposition. Then it had to whittle the list down to two, Osthammar and Oskarshamn, both already the site of nuclear plants.... [Read More]

[Taliesin]

I wouldn't mind one around here either.

Once the construction is done you really don't see anything different.

And the amount of radiation exposure is so minimal that you get more from the sun.

[ILAveo]

Originally Posted by Taliesin

I wouldn't mind one around here either.

Once the construction is done you really don't see anything different.

And the amount of radiation exposure is so minimal that you get more from the sun.

You'd say that about the plans of nearly any hazardous materials handling facility.

The devil is in the details of the implementation.

That difference between plans and implementation keeps me in beer and skittles.

[Taliesin]

Originally Posted by ILAveo

You'd say that about the plans of nearly any hazardous materials handling facility...

Actually, I know a little about this process and I would be more leary of a different type of hazardous material facility until I knew more about it.

But I would also take the time to learn about that type of facility before I made any complaints about it.

Frankly, I would complain more about our nearby chicken farm than about a nuclear waste facility.

[ILAveo]

In my line of work we deal with everything but biohazardous waste. I've been poisoned, frozen, burnt and shot at over the years. I'm not at liberty to comment much on specific incidents, but some things generally hold true. There isn't so much difference between industries once you get away from mom and pop level operations. Companies that are prosperous but not booming seem to do the best job in any industry. One thing to keep in mind is that it's sort of like drivers and cars, once facilities get safer, operators get more careless, human nature I guess. I doubt that you can develop an idiot-proof facility. Once releases get alarming and expensive to clean up, operator denial and cover up can get pretty elaborate.

It probably won't make you feel any better to know that there are hazardous materials are all over the place that get mis-handled. Right now I'm helping put together a project to decommission a 20,000 gallon underground industrial perfume storage tank. I'd never thought about that as a hazardous material before and apparently neither had the plant engineer. It's a good thing they never had a fire.

[bestmapman]

I can tell you that clean up of those facilities can be pretty expensive.