Professor presents two papers at annual Geological Society of America conference

Frank Dickson, emeritus faculty in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering in the University’s Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, presented two papers during the Geological Society of America annual meeting, Oct. 28-31 in Denver.

Dickson’s first paper, “Radioactive Matter From Underground Nuclear Waste Sites, including Yucca Mountain, Nevada, Migrates Upward by Hydrothermal and Intrusive Processes,” dealt with an important issue in the state — the safety of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. “Nuclear waste buried underground would return to surface by geological mechanisms, seriously threatening life,” the paper began. “Mobil matter forms in systems that contain energy in excess of equlibrium levels, and where heat is not dispersed smoothly by conduction.” The paper noted that during the process, “Properties of rock-fluid systems are strongly affected. …. Reaction cells cycle liquefaction energies between endothermic dissolution of cover rocks at tops with exothermic precipitation of minerals at bases, with freed energies moving upward by convective overturn in central liquids.”

The second paper was entitled, “Nitrite in Drinking Water Nourishes Growth of Cancer,” and was co-authored by Kenneth J. Hsu of the Institute of Resources Recycling at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China. The abstract to the paper noted that, “Most Westerners do not know that Chinese scientists found that incidence of cancer correlates positively with nitrite in drinking waters. Cancer mortality rates are 10 or 20 per 100,000 persons in rural communities with waters low in nitrite and 200-300 in North America and Europe, where drinking waters are high in nitrite. Authorities in Linzhou, China, varied nitrite in drinking waters and found that rates of cancer are functions of nitrite concentrations. Nitrite-high waters can be converted to healthy waters by patented processes.” The researchers noted that nitrite from sewage plants produced by biodegrading organic matter under oxidizing conditions and discharged into surface waters disrupts the natural cycle, and that cancer rates in the West strongly increased after construction of such plants. The patented processes developed by researcher Hsu helped convert six million tons per day of waste water to drinkable water in Donqquang, China.

News | Comments | Trackback