On 11 Jul 2006 02:18:16 -0700 someone who may be "Fitz"
wrote this:-

Ever thought about the decommissioning cost of coal slag heaps? Aberfan
springs to mind...or the decommissioning costs of all the gas and oil
fired power stations in the world...New Orleans springs to mind.

Honestly - no. Is it expensive?

The background is that slag heaps were essentially created for coal
that could not be sold at the time, because it was too small to fit
traditional grates. That doesn't apply to coal used in power
stations, as one look at a merry go round coal train will confirm.

Provided they are looked after properly there is no particular need
to do anything with the heaps, indeed some are now preserved as a
monument to past industries. If they are not looked after properly
then they can become dangerous, which is what happened at Aberfan.

Sometimes tips are removed for various reasons, not just coal ones.
Compared to the effort involved in cleaning up after nuclear the
cost and time involved is minimal. A year or two and the tip is gone
and the land ready for further use. That is not the case with
nuclear, as the hulks of former submarines in the basin at Rosyth
demonstrate. One of the hulks has been there for at least fifteen
years, surrounded by radiation monitors. Then there is Windscale,
which will undoubtedly take at least two centuries to clean up even
if work on creating any more mess there was stopped tomorrow.

Well I'm a lot more relaxed now about radioactivity than I used to be,
but even so it still needs to be treated carefully and with respect.

It needs to be understood and controlled properly. Some people panic
too much when the "R-word" is mentioned. However, that does not mean
one can believe some of the "reassurance" the nuclear lobby puts out
on the subject.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54