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rivers and countryside are being sc–
riously polluted :tnd marred.
Yet, man will havc to solve his
mounting solid wastc crisis or facc dire
consequcnccs in thc near future!
Strangely, fcw ask the fundamental
guestion of whether all the myriads of
products that are uscd ( rarcly con–
sumed) in our age of ultra-materialism
should be produced in the first place.
Radioactivity: Silent
Pollution?
We livc in thc Atomic Agc. Our Iives
(and our bodics) have already bcen al–
tered by this fnct! The tcsting of nu–
clear weapons during thc Sixties reprc–
sented onc
of
the greatest global intru–
sion experimcnts in history. Each of us
now carries radio-active strontium in
his bones, sorne radioactivc cesium in
his muscles, possibly radioactive iodine
in his thyroid.
The Sixties havc also witncsscd an–
other form of "nuclear proli feration"
- the expanding use of peacetimc
nuclear reactors
f
or elcctric power gen–
eration.
As a result of the growing pressure
against thc expanding use of fucls
( coal, oil, and natural
g~),
it is pre–
dicted that
nuclc.u-~encrated
energy will
be heavily rclied on by many nations
to supply burgeoning power dcmands.
Power nceds arc doubling every dec–
ade in the U. S. Thc Atomic Energy
Commission predicts
U.
S. clectricity by
the year
2000
will be
50*
nuclear
generated - now it is only
1
%.
Around thc worltl, nearly
50
nations
have invcstcJ in nuclear reactors -
mostly snull rescarch rcactors. But the
trend is toward constructing atomic–
powcred electnc-gencrating stations.
Hundreds of nuclear rc.1ctors are now
in cxistcnce and hundreds more will be
built in the coming dccac.le. Nuclear
~nergy
is coming of agc for the
world's ravcnous industrial and con–
sumer power appetitcs.
What Most Don't Realize
What most people don't realize is
that the majority of thesc nuclear re–
actors allow minute but measurablc
amounts of radioactivc wastc material
to escape into th<: environment. In fact,
every step of the nuclear power process
- from uranium ore mining, to fucl
use in reactors, to reproccssing of that
fue!, to final wastc disposal - allows
sorne release of radioactive elcments.
Sorne used fue! and radioactive wastes
are so dangerous that they must
be
stored underground in cemcnt and steel–
lined tanks for hundrcds of ycars. Evcn
underground, tests have shown that it is
very possible for sorne radioacttvtty to
leak out and become a serious threat to
water supplies. Bccause of this ever–
present hazard, citizens groups in Cali–
fornia have successfully resistcd the con–
struction of nuclear plants on or near
earthquake fault lines.
However small might thc discharges
of nuclear plants be, the grcat clanger
even in this is thc conccntration of ra–
dioactive elements as they move up thc
food chain. This phenomenon
is
similar
to insccticide conceotrations in food
chains exemplified by DDT in thc
oceans.
As dilute radioactive materials move
(
rom microscopic plants and animals to
small fish, to larger fish and water life,
to animals, birds and man, it becomes
concentrated possibly hundreds or thou–
$ands of times over.
In his book
The CareleJJ Atom
au–
thor Shcldon Novick reported the fol–
lowing results of dumping cooling water
f rom plutonium-production reactors.
Thc reactor in question is located on
the Columbia River in America's Pacific
Northwest.
Radioactivity of the Columbia Rivcr
plankton - tiny microscopic plants and
animals - averaged two thousand times
thc radioactivity of thc water. More