76-02-B7
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Nuclear Wastes[edit]
Transcript[edit]One day we may get rid of nuclear waste by putting them to work to improve our environment. I'll be right back. Though most of the arguments over safety and nuclear power plants have been settled, what to do with radioactive wastes is still a question that bothers many people. A small firm of scientists in California and the Sandia Laboratories in New Mexico have come up with a promising approach to solving this problem, while at the same time working on five others that might surprise you. According to Aquionix Incorporated, the California company and officials of Sandia, the technology exists to use spent nuclear fuel to virtually eliminate water pollution, cut the cost of making fertilizer, reduce the amount of energy needed to treat wastewater, make the recycling of water more feasible and cut in half the cost to our cities of operating sewage treatment plants. It's been known for quite some time that when you take the water out of sewage and purify it you can reuse that water. When you disinfect the sewage and extract toxic chemicals, the dried sludge can be used as fertilizer, even as feed for animals. But the whole process is expensive. Expensive enough that it hasn't found much commercial application so far. Meanwhile it's costing more than a hundred dollars per dry ton to get rid of sludge and we're spending millions trying to dispose of nuclear wastes which, according to scientists, could be put to use solving these other environmental problems. Cesium 137 is radioactive and makes up about 60 percent of nuclear fuel waste. Strontium 90 makes up most of the rest and produces great heat. In New Mexico, Sandia scientists are carting batches of city sewage to their laboratories where they use a combination of radiation and heat to process it into a food supplement for cattle. They are testing this supplement side by side with a herd that feeds on soybean meal, the conventional supplement. If their test proves successful, it might lead to widespread use of the sludge as cattle food, thus making it possible to divert the soybean meal to human uses. In the city of Morgan Hill California, a demonstration plant should open in a few days which will show how nuclear wastes can effectively purify city wastewater so it can be recycled for irrigation and other uses. But you ask if nuclear power plant waste materials have so much potential to remove pollution from water and to turn sewage sludge into fertilizer and animal feed. Why aren't they being used extensively now? Mr Neil Nielsen of the Aquionix firm says the reason is that government officials who really could be giving the green light are fearful of public reaction to the idea of using nuclear wastes. "But the fact remains," he says, "that if we did, we could use up these wastes and in the process the water and sludge would not themselves become radioactive." The process is safe. In fact if you sat on top of the sewage treatment plant using the waste, you would absorb less radiation than you do sitting in your living room 15 feet from your television set. Here's one chance where the bureaucrats could help become problem solvers instead of problem creators. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.
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