nuclear-news

Unsolved nuclear waste problem is stopping the industry

Nuclear waste blocks growth opportunities The Collegian Philip Reiser, Staff Writer   10 Nov 09 With the growing concerns about the climate problem, the need for renewable energy sources becomes more and more pressing…………….

Though nuclear energy is an attractive alternative to coal, the U.S. has not built a new nuclear facility in 30 years. A contested debate about nuclear waste has grown from this uncertainty.

Currently, most nuclear waste is disposed of at nuclear facilities at the bottom of large pools or buried in dry casks outside.

These options may work for the next few decades, but nuclear waste remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years and will surely outlast the buildings the weapons are currently stored in.

The last thing politicians want responsibility for is a nuclear disaster like the lessons of Chernobyl in 1986. A nuclear reactor exploded and caused massive radiation poisoning and thousands died. These lessons are still cause for extreme caution…………………….

More than twenty years of planning and millions of dollars of taxpayer money seem to have been flushed down the drain.

Before any new nuclear plants are built, a long-term solution to the nuclear waste problem has to be found.

The Collegian Online: Nuclear waste blocks growth opportunities

November 10, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, wastes