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Stanrorp UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Department of Genetics

SEP 14 £72

Dr. Alvin Weinberg
Director, Oak Ridge National Lahoratory

Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Dear Al:
A propos the safe disposal of radioactive wastes,

has any serious study been made of the possibility of "burning" them?

I have in mind either a) something close to the present art, incorporating
the wastes in underground fusion devices, or

b) hypothetical projections of the likelihood of
such disposal capabilities as a byproduct of fusion power systems within the
next hundred years.

‘Even a reasonable possibility of such developments should obviously in-
fluence the design of systems, otherwise predicated on making the wastes
maximally inaccessible for many centuries.

It would not utterly surprise me to hear that "burning" would aggravate
the problem, rather than help it, to sufficient certainty to disqualify such
a solution. But I would hope that the problem has been looked at from the
point of view of finding a conceivable answer in such a direction, rather
than finding plausible reasons to discard it. I just don't have the technical
background to pursue such a question. any further.

Sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg

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LT. J. P. KENNEDY, JR. LABORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY : HEREDITY NEUROBIOLOGY DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE

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