For the kids, we captured a giant squid and put a saddle on it. Each child will get a 15 minute ride, or shorter if its hungry, on the back of Architeuthis around the harbor. So the last part isn’t true but you will no doubt have fun and be in awe.

? – Someone is more concerned about the nuclear warheads, than the REACTOR? OY-VEY! If a nuclear sub in port at Norfolk were to accidently sheer the reactor, everyone in the area would be dead right quick. As it stands, the scorpion is two miles underwater where the temp hovers in the upper thirties. (F)

That and Pu, is the atomic symbol for Plutonium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium
“All isotopes and compounds of plutonium are toxic and radioactive. While plutonium is sometimes described in media reports as “the most toxic substance known to man”, from the standpoint of literal toxicity this is incorrect. As of 2006, there has yet to be a single human death officially attributed to exposure to plutonium itself (with the exception of plutonium-related criticality accidents). Naturally-occurring radium is about 200 times more radiotoxic than plutonium, and some organic toxins like botulin toxin are still more toxic. Botulin toxin, in particular, has a lethal dose of 300 pg per kg of body weight, far less than the quantity of plutonium that poses a significant cancer risk. In addition, beta and gamma emitters (including the carbon-14 and potassium-40 in nearly all food) can cause cancer on casual contact, which alpha emitters cannot.

When taken in by mouth, plutonium is less poisonous (except for risk of causing cancer) than several common substances including caffeine, acetaminophen, some vitamins, pseudoephedrine, and any number of plants and fungi. It is perhaps somewhat more poisonous than pure ethanol, but less so than tobacco; and many illegal drugs. From a purely chemical standpoint, it is about as poisonous as lead and other heavy metals. Not surprisingly, it has a metallic taste.[14]

Glowing hot bits of plutonium in a box, which have been set alight due to plutonium’s pyrophoric nature.That said, there is no doubt that plutonium may be extremely dangerous when handled incorrectly. The alpha radiation it emits does not penetrate the skin, but can irradiate internal organs when plutonium is inhaled or ingested. Particularly at risk are the skeleton, where it is likely to be absorbed by the bone surface, and the liver, where it will likely collect and become concentrated. Approximately 0.008 microcuries absorbed in bone marrow is the maximum withstandable dose. Anything more is considered toxic. Extremely fine particles of plutonium (on the order of micrograms) can cause lung cancer if inhaled.”

Anyway: Knowledge is power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium#Exposure
“Effects
The greatest health risk from large intakes of uranium is toxic damage to the kidneys, because, in addition to being weakly radioactive, uranium is a toxic metal.[49][50][10] Uranium is a reproductive toxicant.[51] Radiological effects are generally local because this is the nature of alpha radiation, the primary form from U-238 decay. No human cancer has been seen as a result of exposure to natural or depleted uranium,[52] but exposure to some of its decay products, especially radon, does pose a significant health threat.[7] Exposure to strontium-90, iodine-131, and other fission products is unrelated to uranium exposure, but may result from medical procedures or exposure to spent reactor fuel or fallout from nuclear weapons.[53] Although accidental inhalation exposure to a high concentration of uranium hexafluoride has resulted in human fatalities, those deaths were not associated with uranium itself.[54] Finely-divided uranium metal presents a fire hazard because uranium is pyrophoric, so small grains will ignite spontaneously in air at room temperature.[3]“

Dumping in the ocean began at the dawn of the industrial revolution. Over time the practice expanded. After every war the military would deep 6 everything. Today we shoot depleted uranium in Iraq by the ton. The expression that fits our situation the best is, “We crossed the Rubicon and there is no turning back!”

We can’t possibly clean this entire mess up and we continue to add to it. Enjoy your life and live each day like it is our last! We can’t sue the military since that would not solve the main problems and we can’t find any place to store the stuff even if we could recover it all.

The major cause of all of our pain is energy or the lack of it and the industrialization needed and made by that energy. Chemical weapons were made to kill because nations fight over recourses like land, people, food, water, water rights, mineral rights and energy. If you want to live don’t eat seafood, don’t swim in the oceans, stay away from crowds of people and run for the hills since people no longer fit in nature.

Jayne Peralta

I hate feeling even remotely connected to this by being an American citizen and what’s worse is that I’m not educated in how to create and end to this type of reckless behavior!

Please advise . . .

Jayne Peralta

Comment by Greg — June 14, 2007 @ 12:39 pm

How is this blast from the past??

“Make Love Not War!”

Seriously, if we are to survive we must retrieve all of this waste and use the current disposal methods like

http://www.nickelinstitute.org/ index.cfm/ ci_id/ 14231/ la_id/ 1.htm

And cease adding to the things we have no solutions for. Those items like nuclear we are married to for thousands of years to come.

All the while we are running out of energy so maintaining nuclear waste at some point will be impossible.

We must conserve all resources and put everything into FOOD

BP

Repeat: Still totally sucks.

Comment by dbadass — June 13, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
Well in short VX is bad news! As it happens here is a process that can be used
http://www.nickelinstitute.org/index.cfm/ci_id/14231/la_id/1.htm
VX is not water soluble and here is some direct data…
The best way to sum it all up is that ocean plants and animals cannot tolerate these chemicals. The EPA would measure parts per million and establish an acceptable tolerance allowed that is greater than the existing ratio. Should the level rise to be the same or greater the EPA would simply establish a new limit of acceptability. Ultimately the oceans will be too toxic to support much life if any and our work will be done.

The radioactive stuff goes back to before 1962.

Comment by jimmyl — June 13, 2007 @ 4:38 pm

May 22, 1968/At Sea, Atlantic:

The submarine USS SCORPION (SSN-589) sank May 22, 1968 in more than 10,000 feet of water about 400 miles southwest of the Azores. SCORPION is in two major sections. The forward hull section including the torpedo room and most of the operations compartment is located in a trench that was formed by the impact of the hull section with the bottom. The sail is detached. The aft hull section including the reactor compartment and engine room is located in a separate trench that was formed by the impact of the hull section with the bottom. The aft section of the engine room is inserted forward into a larger diameter hull section in a manner similar to a telescope. There were two Mark 45 ASTOR torpedoes with nuclear warheads aboard SCORPION when she was lost in 1968. The warheads were low-yield tactical nuclear weapons. The special nuclear material from the warheads has not been recovered.

Pu239 has a 24,100 year ½ life.
The half life of uranium is 760 million years.
So who is going to be watching this stuff decay? Should our kids do it or should their kids?