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Taxpayer slugged for costs of nuclear wastes

Tracking Your Taxes: The High Price of Nuclear Waste by William La Jeunesse – FOXNews.com – November 04, 2009 SAN ONOFRE, Calif. While closing Yucca Mountain made for good campaign politics in Nevada, it leaves the U.S. with nowhere to store a growing stockpile of radioactive waste. Roughly 70,000 tons of waste sits in temporary pools and dry storage canisters in 100 reactor sites around the U.S. — each one requiring an army of guards and millions in electronic surveillance……………….

what made for good campaign politics in Nevada leaves the U.S. with nowhere to store a growing stockpile of radioactive waste. Roughly 70,000 tons of waste sits in temporary pools and dry storage canisters in 100 reactor sites around the U.S. — each one requiring an army of guards and millions in electronic surveillance.

The federal government agreed in 1982 to build a permanent storage site for radioactive waste and signed contracts to begin accepting it by 1998. Failure to meet that obligation has already cost the government $565 million in settlements and the Department of Energy estimates it will cost another $11 billion over the next decade in court costs and judgments.

“For every summary judgment, for every litigation, that they lose, for every settlement they have to pay, that is money coming out of the taxpayers pocket,” Paige told Fox News…………..

“Many a utility facility across the country is going to have to close down if we don’t get a handle on it because waste is piling up in those communities with reactors,” said Rep. Jerry Lewis, (R-Calif). Lawmakers like Lewis and Sen. John McCain say with no long term repository for America’s nuclear waste, the re-licensing of existing plants and construction of new ones is in jeopardy,

November 7, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes