in 50,000 waterbeds in 40 states that have such high levels of mercury that the health agencies warn people not to eat them. (Toll From)Waste from nuclear power plants may be a threat to the environment if not stored properly. When all thinkable measures have been taken to assure safe storage there may still be concern about leakage or theft. Thousands of tons of spent fuel from commercial reactors is stored in racks submerged in cooling ponds or swimming pools at each reactor site. (Kaku) Even though nuclear waste is dangerous proper containment is observed to protect the environment. Nuclear waste can be stored underground in geologic formations like salt domes or granite formations, which have remained remarkably stable for hundreds of millions of years.(Kaku) After the nuclear rods [fuel] have been used they are unable to explode and do not burn. Finding safe sites to store radioactive waste is a problem. Nobody wants a disposal site in their backyard. In addition to nuclear power plant waste, the world is dealing with radioactive military waste. There are 70 million gallons of highly radioactive military waste that is stored temporarily in Washington State, South Carolina, and Idaho. (Kaku) Nuclear accidents are not known to happen that often. When they do happen, it is usually because of human error or miss judgement. People are terrified of the words nuclear and radioactive because they associate them with the atomic bomb. If a nuclear power plant exploded or had a meltdown, the results would not be a worldwide disaster. The effects of a meltdown would be land contamination out to two hundred miles, latent cancer deaths up to one thousand miles from the reactor and restrictions on milk and cattle consumption out to one thousand miles(Kaku). Computer studies show that there will be immediate fatalities within 10 miles of the reactor.(Kaku) If or when a meltdown happens the fission product travels downwind in a rough 1...
