USA desperately needing solution to nuclear waste problem

Wanted: A Nuclear Waste Solution to Replace Yucca Mountain

About.com By Larry West  30 August 09
“…………………Here is the problem:
 1. There is a lot of radioactive nuclear waste temporarily stored at sites all over the country.
2. Leaving nuclear waste in place and transporting it to some central and supposedly secure location both pose public safety and national security risks.
3. Nuclear waste can remain toxic, and potentially lethal, for 100,000 years or more (roughly equivalent to the length of time between the emergence of modern Homo sapiens and today), and no one knows whether we can safely store radioactive waste for that long.
 4. America is not going to stop producing nuclear energy and nuclear weapons; both are considered far too important to our national security.
5. Nobody wants the waste, making nuclear-waste disposal one of the most controversial NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) issues in history.

There are already about 63,000 tons of used radioactive fuel at 104 operating U.S. nuclear power plants; it is currently stored either underwater or in so-called “dry storage.” Waste from nuclear weapons production, dating back to World War II, is an even bigger problem. It is currently stored at 16 federal sites in 13 states, although most of it is at Hanford in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory and Savannah River in South Carolina.Quoting from the McClatchy article:“At Hanford alone, there are 53 million gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste, 2,100 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and nearly 2,000 capsules containing radioactive cesium and strontium.

Wanted: A Nuclear Waste Solution to Replace Yucca Mountain

August 31, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, wastes