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Funds to shut nuclear plants fall short

Funds to shut nuclear plants fall short B y DAVE GRAM and FRANK BASS – Google News 17 June 09  VERNON, Vt. (AP) — The companies that own almost half the nation’s nuclear reactors are not setting aside enough money to dismantle them, and many may sit idle for decades and pose safety and security risks as a result, an Associated Press investigation has found……………………………..

At 19 nuclear plants, owners have won approval to idle reactors for as long as 60 years, presumably enough time to allow investments to recover and eventually pay for dismantling the plants and removing radioactive material.

But mothballing reactors or shutting them down inadequately could pose dangerous health, environmental or security problems. In the worst cases, generally considered unlikely, risks include radioactive waste leaking from idled plants into groundwater, airborne releases or a terrorist attack.

During the past two years, estimates of dismantling costs have soared by more than $4.6 billion because rising energy and labor costs, while the investment funds that are supposed to pay for shutting plants down have lost $4.4 billion in the battered stock market…………………………..some analysts worry the utility companies that own nuclear plants might not even exist in six decades.”Our concern is that they’ll just walk away from it,” said Jim Riccio, a Greenpeace nuclear policy analyst. “It’s like a sitting time bomb………………………………….Plant operators appear to benefit from NRC rules that don’t require them to set aside money to store old nuclear fuel, demolish buildings, or return the plant sites to pristine states. Although some states require a full site restoration, the federal government does not.

The Associated Press: AP IMPACT: Funds to shut nuclear plants fall short

June 17, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radioactive, wastes