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EDITORIAL: A Jolt of Reality: More Radioactive Waste is Downside to Building Nuclear Power Plants

EDITORIAL: A Jolt of Reality: More Radioactive Waste is Downside to Building Nuclear Power Plants iStock  December 11, 2008  Source: Beaver County Times)trackingBy Beaver County Times, Pa.Dec. 11–During the presidential campaign, Republican candidate John McCain pledged to build 45 nuclear reactors by 2030 to meet the nation’s energy needs.With just about everybody but the most ardent of global-warming deniers recognizing the negative impact that coal-fired plants are having on the environment, the proposal was appealing politically because it rolled energy independence and global warming into one package.It also was unrealistic…………….e major factor for going slow on nuclear power is disposing the radioactive waste it generates.

The United States has designated Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a proposed depository for spent fuel, but it is more than a decade away from being up and running, if it ever does at all.

It’s also important to remember that shipping spent fuel to Nevada would raise serious security and safety concerns.

It’s not just the disposal of spent fuel that presents a problem. As The Times reported on Sunday, facilities like the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport are having trouble disposing of low-level nuclear waste because a South Carolina landfill has stopped accepting it. (Until another disposal facility can be found, the waste is being stored on site.)

Low-level waste consists of such things as resins used to clean water at power plants and material used to power equipment at university laboratories and hospitals. It differs from high-level nuclear waste such as fuel rods in that the volume and concentration of radioactive isotopes it contains is much lower.

EDITORIAL: A Jolt of Reality: More Radioactive Waste is Downside to Building Nuclear Power Plants

December 12, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized