Be prepared

Also in the current issue of the Atlanta "Creative Loafing", in the News of the Weird column, about the leak-safety standards for the proposed nuclear waste depository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The editor of the column seems not to think the proposed standards of leak safety for a million years are unreasonable. In reference to the fact the the EPA would regard the facility as safe for only 10,000 years, the editor noted that this is "almost five times the length of time since the birth of Jesus". In regards to the proposed standards, he made the following comment - Context: Science had not even discovered radioactivity 110 years ago.

The reason we need such standards is because of the long time that the nuclear waste will be dangerous. If we choose to put it in a place that will leak long before it has lost its danger, we will be endangering future generations. It would be hard to stop such a leak.

Also, the context is exactly why we need standards that will mandate safety for the length of the dangerous radioactivity of the nuclear waste; given the history of human society, there is no reason to assume that a society that understands the risk will continue to exist for a long period of time.