As anyone who's taken a decent class on nuclear energy knows, radioactive waste isn't nearly as scary as everyone makes it out to be. After about 600 years tops, the level of radioactivity has dropped to or below the level of natural radioactivity and is essentially non-toxic. At the very least, it's no more toxic than any naturally occurring radioactive element (since uranium is found practically everywhere on the planet). Small fact most people don't know: uranium and plutonium are both alpha particle emitters, alpha particles cannot penetrate the skin and are only dangerous if inhaled...thus you can hold either in your hand and just about never have any chance of developing cancer.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever taken a class on nuclear energy? The "fact" that a tablespoon full of plutonium could kill every human on earth is the most blown out of proportion ridiculous fact ever. Consider this, uranium is a natural element. It exists everywhere, everywhere! Directly under you right now is uranium. Uranium and plutonium are both alpha particle emitters. Alpha particles cannot penetrate your skin, thus the only danger lies in inhaling them, and even this is a slight danger since you would have to inhale a large amount of it for it to have any chance of staying in your lungs and doing any damage. In order for a tablespoon of plutonium to kill everyone it would have to be inhaled and then each person would have a 1 in 30,000,000,000,000(maybe another set of zeros, not sure) chance that their particle of plutonium would cause cancer in them that they could eventually die from.
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As anyone who's taken a decent class on nuclear energy knows, radioactive waste isn't nearly as scary as everyone makes it out to be. After about 600 years tops, the level of radioactivity has dropped to or below the level of natural radioactivity and is essentially non-toxic. At the very least, it's no more toxic than any naturally occurring radioactive element (since uranium is found practically everywhere on the planet). Small fact most people don't know: uranium and plutonium are both alpha particle emitters, alpha particles cannot penetrate the skin and are only dangerous if inhaled...thus you can hold either in your hand and just about never have any chance of developing cancer.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever taken a class on nuclear energy? The "fact" that a tablespoon full of plutonium could kill every human on earth is the most blown out of proportion ridiculous fact ever. Consider this, uranium is a natural element. It exists everywhere, everywhere! Directly under you right now is uranium. Uranium and plutonium are both alpha particle emitters. Alpha particles cannot penetrate your skin, thus the only danger lies in inhaling them, and even this is a slight danger since you would have to inhale a large amount of it for it to have any chance of staying in your lungs and doing any damage. In order for a tablespoon of plutonium to kill everyone it would have to be inhaled and then each person would have a 1 in 30,000,000,000,000(maybe another set of zeros, not sure) chance that their particle of plutonium would cause cancer in them that they could eventually die from.