Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 2000 Page: 2 of 12
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PAGE 2, HUDSPETH COUNTY HERALD-Dell Valley Review, FEBRUARY 11,2000
By Arjun Makhijani Washington Post Service
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HE THOUGHT
HECOULp.
The central questions in decommissioning involve how clean the
sites are going to be and how to dispose of the radioactive waste.
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International Herald Tribune , Paris
Tuesday, January 25, 2000
It is therefore no accident that we have heard the champions of the
nuclear industry deride the dangers of low levels of radiation, saying
that a little bit of radiation does not hurt people or that one would get
a larger dose by moving from Washington to Denver (because of the
higher altitude) than by living next to a nuclear dump, and so forth.
In this view, the public has an irrational phobia about radiation that
could cost society billions in needless expenditures.
Tens of billions of dollars are at stake, because current standards
apply to some 70 nuclear power plants and waste disposal sites in
America. Under present rules, some decommissioning funds that
utilities have been required by law to put in anticipatory escrow over
the years may be adequate or have some surpluses. Others may
fall far short. If regulators were to relax standards, plant owners
might be able to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars of these
saved funds.
mg
he
Sir
Lin
Grudge not another what
you cannot attain yourself
English Proverb
Electricity deregulation is adding to the pressure for looser
standards. The prospect of deregulation has led some American
utilities to opt out of nuclear power. Power plants that cost a billion
dollars or more to build are being sold for about $100 million or less.
The plants come complete with decommissioning funds of hundreds
of millions of dollars. Lax standards could result in a handsome
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WASHINGTON - A significant number of older U.S. nuclear power
plants are approaching the end of their useful lives and must be
decommissioned, a process with profound environmental
consequences, because the innards of reactors become radioactive
during decades of operation.
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The Threat of Aging Nuclear
Facilities, Decommissioning,
Health Studies
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Public fears of radiation are not irrational. Rather, they are a
reasonable response of people who, in the face of notoriously
inexact science, have chosen not to trust those who have
egregiously and frequently betrayed them. Before considering a
relaxation of radiation protection standards, policymakers should
discuss how they might restore public trust.
(The writer, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research, contributed this comment to The Washington Post.
return on investment.
The Department of Energy, which owns the U.S. nuclear weapons
complex, also has an interest in easing standards to minimize
cleanup costs.
In 1996 the department undermined the process to create national
cleanup standards. Then it proposed to leave 40 times more
plutonium in the soil after cleanup at its Rocky Flats plant near
Denver than its own guidelines allowed for areas in the Marshall
Islands contaminated by nuclear testing. (It backed down under
intense public pressure).
Current radiation protection standards are not too strict. Indeed,
studies show that radiation may be more dangerous than assumed in
present regulations. Further, current rules are made for “standard
man” - a 154-pound (70-kilogram) male - and therefore are not as
protective of, say, children or developing fetuses for some kinds of
water contamination.
Some studies do show no damage at low radiation doses. They
provide the basis for the view that present standards should be
relaxed.
For several reasons, science has so far been unable to resolve the
controversy. First, cancer is a common disease, with a variety of
causative and contributory factors, such as genetic vulnerability,
diet, smoking and exposure to natural and artificial radioactivity and
toxins. It is often impossible to extricate the effects of any
particular exposure from this complex mix.
In 1990 the National Academy of Sciences, after reviewing a large
number of human and animal studies, recommended models
according to which every new exposure, no matter how small,
creates some increase in cancer risk.
Industry talk brushes this aside as outdated. The National
Academy of Sciences is undertaking a new review, due to be
completed in three years. It is becoming one of the arenas for the
controversy.
Second, many radiation exposure records are deeply flawed,
vitiating risk studies and making it difficult to separate the good
studies from the bad.
Third, the government and its nuclear weapons contractors have,
under the guise of national security, sometimes covered up and
even lied about radiation exposure, as recent reporting on the
Paducah, Kentucky, uranium enrichment plant has shown.
Paducah is not a solitary case. Obtaining the best extant data in the
face of such behavior generally has not been feasible. This makes
some independent studies less reliable than they might otherwise
be.
February 01,2000
Sierra Club choose
OA reporter as
state’s top
environmental
writer
Odessa American
Odessa American reporter
Greg Harman has been named
the Sierra Club’s Lone Star en-
vironmental reporter of the
year.
The statewide award recog-
nizes excellence in environ-
mental reporting, said Molly
Bean, chairwoman of the
awards committee.
A Sierra Club spokeswoman
said Harman was nominated for
the award for a variety of envi-
ronmental stories.
“I read a lot of papers from
around the state, and I thought
Greg provided a real service to
West Texas through his re-
porting,” said Fran Sage,
chairwoman of the Big Bend
chapter of the Sierra Club, who
nominated Harman.
“The goal of the Odessa Ameri-
can is to respect and respond
to the concerns of the entire
community and accurately re-
port the issues, “ Harman said.
“This recognition honors not
only this paper and its report-
ing, but the very sanctity of
this rich and rugged land.”
Harman will accept the award at
a ceremony in Austin on Feb.
26.
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PERSISTENCE
[AT hen you think you have failed, remind
V V yourself of the life story of this man.
Age 22 - failed in business
Age 23 - ran for legislature and was defeated
Age 24 - failed again in business
Age 25 - elected to legislature
Age 26 - sweetheart died
Age 27 - had a nervous breakdown
Age 29 - defeated for speaker
Age 31 - defeated for elector
Age 34 - defeated for Congress
Age 37 - elected to Congress
Age 39 - defeated for Congress
Age 46 - defeated for Senate
Age 47 - defeated for vice president
Age 49 - defeated for Senate
Age 51 - elected president of the United States
This is the record of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout
his life, he suffered many more defeats than victories,
but because he never gave up, he won the highest
office in the land.
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a
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/(
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ri
a
u
Michael Jordan took up bas-
ketball because his parents were
worried he would be injured play-
ing football. Short at 14 and
underweight, he was not an
immediate success.
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Lynch, Mary Louise. Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 2000, newspaper, February 11, 2000; Dell City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1177778/m1/2/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .