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Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s unfounded claim that “waste disposal solution will be available”

The NRC maintains its position that a repository “will be available …. when necessary.” But the petitioning groups say that assumption is made without “foundation in the facts and history of the U.S. geologic repository program.”….

As U.S. Moves Ahead with Nuclear Power, No Solution for Radioactive Waste, Solve Climate News, By Abby LubyMar 3, 2011“…….Less than a week after the attorneys general sued, environmental organizations petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn two NRC rules that say storage and disposal of radioactive waste poses no significant safety or environmental concerns.

One petition was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The other was jointly filed by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Riverkeeper and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The organizations’ petitions have a different focus from the lawsuit filed by the states. While the attorneys general challenged the legality of storing waste on-site without a proper environmental review, the green groups targeted NRC for being too vague about when, whether and how it plans to find a new repository for the nation’s nuclear leftovers. This is causing particular concern in light of the Obama administration’s decision to pull the plug on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada.

Since 2002, the DOE has spent about $9 billion to open a permanent repository for spent fuel at Yucca Mountain. Congress originally chose the site in 1987. For decades, environmental groups fought against the repository and ultimately succeeded in stopping the project.

In its 2012 budget, the Obama administration cut funding for the Yucca Mountain project. The DOE has yet to find a state willing to host the radioactive waste for the nation’s nuclear plants

The NRC maintains its position that a repository “will be available …. when necessary.” But the petitioning groups say that assumption is made without “foundation in the facts and history of the U.S. geologic repository program.”

David Lochbaum, the director of the nuclear safety project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, agrees that NRC’s plan for a future repository is flawed.

“The NRC has confidence that a permanent disposal site will become available, and that spent fuel can be safely and securely stored on site until then,” he told SolveClimate News. But the DOE’s inability to do this so far “thoroughly undermines NRC’s basis for concluding that challenge might someday be met.”

As U.S. Moves Ahead with Nuclear Power, No Solution for Radioactive Waste | SolveClimate News

March 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes