<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Andrew Norton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ktetch@gmail.com">ktetch@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im">2009/10/27 Félix Robles <<a href="mailto:redeadlink@gmail.com">redeadlink@gmail.com</a>>:<br>
</div><div class="im"><br>
> Perhaps you spent time at those places and you don't glow, but remember that<br>
> it's only because the radioactive material was very controlled. No one can<br>
> assure that the radioactive waste will be under control in 10 thousand<br>
> years, or in 1 million years.<br>
><br>
<br>
</div>100 years ago, we were ignorant about radioactivity. Radium was often<br>
sold as a balm, put it on your lips, your scalp, eat it, it's 'good<br>
for you'.<br>
Today we can control reactions and keep materials separate and 'safe'.<br>
Imagine what will be 100 years from now.<br></blockquote><div class="im"><br>Maybe radioactive nuclear waste will be a thing of the past 100 years from now, but until then, I can't support the use of nuclear power plants.<br>
<br>
> So we are risking the lifes of future generations: you don't glow, but will<br>
> your descendants glow in 50 thousand years?<br>
<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
The risks are generally over-exaggerated by many. We naturally grew up<br>
in a radioactive environment. In fact, there's strong evidence that<br>
it's due to radioactivity that life actually evolved (through<br>
encouraging genetic mutation)<br></blockquote><div><br>If you exposure yourself a long time to radiation doses slightly less than that which produces serious radiation sickness, chances are you're going to develop cancer as cell-cycle genes are mutated. That risk is not over-exaggerated: the relationship between probability of getting cancer and a long exposure to certain doses of radiation can be measured and studied.<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">There's no 'safe', half lifes are not "this is when it all is gone"<br>
it's a statistical approximation saying that approximately half the<br>
material has decayed. It's all statistical, not fixed. Even<br>
radioactive exposure is again, statistically based. I'll try and get<br>
some more info on that - one of my friends has just become a<br>
Radiologist (he got bored with being a surgeon)<br></blockquote><div><br>O course it's a statistical approach, but a very useful one: if you receive about 60 Sv chances are 4 days from now you will not be alive. If you receive about 10^-20 Sv every year, you life expentancy is a little higher...<br>
</div></div><br>