New Nuclear Reactors Will Produce More Radiation

New Nuclear Reactors Will Produce More Radiation Along With More Electricity

About by Larry West March 9, 2009

A new generation of nuclear reactors designed to generate more electricity more safely than previous technology may actually produce radioactive waste that is more toxic and would be released more quickly in case of a nuclear accident, according to information contained in industry documents and brought to light by Greenpeace.

……………….. Safety features built into EPR reactors would make a nuclear accident less likely than ever before, but one study suggests that an EPR reactor or waste accident could kill nearly twice as many people as an accident at one of the atomic reactors they are designed to replace.

The study, conducted by independent nuclear consultant John Large, compared the consequences of an accident at the new EPR reactor being constructed in Normandy with one at an existing reactor in the same area. Large concluded that, in the worst case, the number of deaths would increase from 16,000 to more than 28,000.

EPR reactors are designed to burn nuclear fuel almost twice as thoroughly as atomic reactors, but that process also increases the toxicity of the nuclear waste EPR reactors produce. Various industry documents show that, compared to atomic reactors, EPR nuclear reactors would produce:

Four more radioactive bromine, rubidium, iodine and caesium, according to a report by EDF, the French company that is planning to build four EPR reactors in the UK;
Seven times as much iodine 129, according to Posiva Oy, a nuclear waste company owned by two Finnish companies that build nuclear reactors; and
Eleven times as much caesium 135 and 137, according to the Swiss National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste.

The most troubling thing about these reports is not the specter of a potentially deadly nuclear accident—despite some problems, the nuclear industry has a remarkably good safety record when it comes to operating reactors—but rather that the nuclear industry failed to put all of its cards on the table while selling EPR technology as a safer alternative to atomic reactors.

http://environment.about.com/b/2009/03/09/new-nuclear-reactors-will-produce-more-radiation-along-with-more-electricity.htm

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

Future Dim for Nuclear Waste Repository

The New York Times By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: March 5, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s proposed budget cuts off most money for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, a decision that fulfills a campaign promise and wins the president political points in Nevada — but raises new questions about what to do with radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants.

The decision could cost the federal government additional billions in payments to the utility industry, and if it holds up, it would mean that most of the $10.4 billion spent since 1983 to find a place to put nuclear waste was wasted.

A final decision to abandon the repository would leave the nation with no solution to a problem it has struggled with for half a century.

Lawyers are predicting tens of billions of dollars in damage suits from utilities that must pay to store their wastes instead of having the government bury them, with the figure rising by about a half-billion dollars for each year of additional delay.

The courts have already awarded the companies about $1 billion, because the government signed contracts obligating it to begin taking the waste in 1998, but seems unlikely to do so for years. The nuclear industry says it may demand the return of the $22 billion that it has paid to the Energy Department to establish a repository, but that the government has not yet spent.

The spent fuel that emerges from nuclear power plants has been accumulating for decades in steel-lined pools or giant steel-and-concrete casks near the reactors……………………….. Scientific concerns have since emerged, including the realization that water flows through Yucca Mountain a lot faster than initially believed. That raises the prospect that the nuclear waste would leach over time, polluting the water table. The scientific merit of the site has not been established by independent judges……………… Opponents of nuclear power contend that the nation’s failure to find a permanent repository for the waste is a reason to shut down nuclear reactors and forget about building more.

Abandonment of the Yucca Mountain depository would be a blow for the nuclear industry, which is hoping to begin work on new reactors for the first time in 30 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/science/earth/06yucca.html?bl&ex=1236574800&en=41539a97405bac75&ei=5087%0A

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Washington Century: Safe investments

Seattle.pi.com March 8, 2009 The legacy of dangerous waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has defied resolution for decades.

The federal government must meet its responsibility to the public, the land and the environment. The state’s responsibility is to hold the feds to their promises and their larger moral obligations to a region that gave unselfishly to the atomic efforts judged necessary by the nation’s leadership during World War II.

…………………. The Bush administration’s dangerous pro-nuclear agendas on both electrical power and weapons were problems, even as Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman tried to maintain a decent commitment to cleaning up waste at Hanford.

The signs are more encouraging with President Barack Obama. As Murray noted recently, the federal stimulus bill gave a good boost to an environmental management account that has traditionally helped Hanford.

No one should fool themselves about the likelihood of smooth, steady progress on remediating the huge amounts of waste that threaten workers and the environment, especially the Columbia River. The nation has done a remarkably poor job of addressing even the most blatant human consequences of nuclear weapons testing and production even in this country. As Seattle author Holly Barker says, it’s been even worse for those who were abroad, including Marshall Island residents, some of whom some now live here. They were essentially treated as human guinea pigs, and still have little help in dealing with the consequences.

Solving Hanford’s waste problems cannot be separated from larger decisions. Society may well continue to create troubles faster than a cleanup resolves them, from Hanford to Pakistan. The allure of nuclear reactors continues to grip many, despite the decades of failure to secure waste permanently from natural or terrorist forces.

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

EnergySolutions clarifies controversial remarks

EnergySolutions clarifies controversial remarks

March 9th, 2009 @ 8:53am

By Mary Richards

SALT LAKE CITY — EnergySolutions is on the defensive after its top company official made some claims about the safety of its radioactive waste.

A group fighting EnergySolutions, Healthy Environment Alliance (HEAL) of Utah, is asking state officials to look into claims about the company’s nuclear waste.

HEAL Utah says EnergySolutions is making public claims that imply the waste is safer than it really is. For example, a state senator asked EnergySolutions CEO Steve Creamer if the company’s nuclear waste was safe enough to use in a garden. He said it probably was. …………………… The Salt Lake Tribune reports a lobbyist suggested the waste is safe enough to eat. HEAL Utah’s executive director, Vanessa Pierce, says Creamer told the Deseret News that in 100 years the EnergySolutions site would be clean enough for people to build homes and grow potatoes there.

“We feel that it’s dangerous for the company to be downplaying the danger of the waste they take in such a flippant way,” Pierce said.

She says she has asked the state’s radiation control board to take up the issue at its meeting tomorrow.

“We just felt like it was time to have the state speak up and say look, you can’t grow food at a nuclear waste dump site, even 100 years from now,” she said.

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Radioactive waste to be kept above ground at Diablo Canyon

KSBY-TV

March 6, 2009

Reported by: Kelly Bush

The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant will have to keep its radioactive waste in above ground containers, at least for now.

…………. he proposed Yucca Mountain storage facility in Nevada is no longer an option.

At a hearing Thursday, Chu said the waste can stay at power plants while the Obama administration comes up with another plan.

Last August PG&E won a lawsuit against the Department of Energy. The court ruled the company should get back more than $200 million it spent on storage while waiting for the Nevada facility to be completed.

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

One island for nuke waste?

Mb.com .ph By Atty. Romeo V. Pefianco

March 10, 2009, 12:00am

(Editor’s note: Telling 92.2 M of us that one island, of our 7,000, can be converted into a safe nuclear waste facility won’t do as noted by the author.

EVERYTHING seems easy to some proponents to make the Bataan nuclear plant generate energy for the first time in the unseen future: 1) only $1 billion R48,500,000,000) is needed and 2) just one of our 7,000 islands for waste disposal will suffice……………….. Of course, the 113,000 people living within 50 miles of Carlsbad, and the many New Mexicans beyond that radius were understandably opposed and fought its operation since the site was first proposed in 1974.

Carlsbad is not a facility for hazardous/radioactive waste from nuclear plant/reactor fuel as represented by the geologist………………

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Philippines, wastes | Leave a comment

Protest passage of nuke waste

Lawyer: Protest passage of nuke waste

By Tetch Torres
INQUIRER.net
03/09/2009

MANILA, Philippines — A lawyer has urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to place the Philippines among the countries that are protesting the shipment of radioactive waste, supposedly enough to make 225 nuclear bombs, which is intended for reprocessing in Japan.

Harry Roque of the Center for International Law (CenterLaw) said the shipment of Mixed-Oxide (Mox) fuel has been denied passage by Latin American countries because of the risks it present.

The only remaining route the shipment can take is from France to South Africa, across the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, and the waters of South Pacific nations, including the Philippines, Roque said.

But the lawyer pointed out that several countries along this route, including Australia, are protesting the shipment.

“It is imperative…that the Philippines, together with other countries where the shipment would pass, should protest this shipment,” Roque said.

During a conference on Maritime Security in France, Roque said a member of the State Council, Edwige Belliard, made it clear that France feels it is under no obligation to clean up in case there anything goes wrong with the Mox shipment.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20090309-193126/Lawyer-Protest-passage-of-nuke-waste

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Philippines, safety | Leave a comment

Suddenly, progress on renewable energy

Las Vegas Sun Scot Rutledge, Mar 9, 2009

In just the past few weeks, Nevada has made staggering progress toward realizing a vision for a clean energy economy. We took giant steps forward toward creating high-quality, green jobs and revitalizing our economy by tapping into our abundant solar, wind and geothermal power.

First, we heard that NV Energy canceled plans for a dirty coal plant in White Pine County, and that it announced plans for at least one solar-powered plant here in Southern Nevada. Now, we hear that LS Power has indefinitely postponed another White Pine County dirty coal plant, saying this sort of power plant doesn’t make sense in today’s economic and political climate. In just a few short weeks, our state looked away from a past of dirty coal plants — one of the largest contributors to global warming — and toward a future of clean, renewable energy.

Also, Sen. Harry Reid announced plans for a bill to speed up the process of transmitting renewable energy from our remote rural areas — where it will be generated — to the cities that need it most. This is the missing link in making Nevada one of the world’s renewable energy leaders, and Sen. Reid should be commended for the vision he has established here in Nevada, and nationally, of a clean energy economy

At a time when unemployment is skyrocketing and our financial situation seems so dire in Nevada, we have an opportunity looking at us straight in the face: a clean energy economy that creates thousands of green jobs that can’t be exported overseas, reduces our greenhouse emissions and cuts our dependence on foreign oil. Thanks to Sen. Reid, NV Energy, LS Power and many other forward-thinking community leaders and businesses who are looking to a bright, green future.

March 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY, USA | Leave a comment