nuclear-news

“Blue Ribbon” Panel wants a powerful new govt agency to set up a nuclear waste dump

the commission also urged creation of a new government agency with the sole purpose of selecting the locations of the proposed interim storage and repository facilities. The proposed agency should be given the necessary financial and institutional resources, as well as sufficient authority, to make its policies stick……

Panel urges centralized storage facility and permanent repository for nuclear waste , David KramerBy Physics Today on May 17, 2011, A recommendation has been made by the commission formed to advise the Obama administration on what to do with the spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s commercial reactors: The material should be consolidated at an above-ground storage facility while a new search is carried out to find a permanent geological repository.

In a draft of its interim findings made public on 13 May, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future called for the US to establish one or more interim storage facilities for the consolidation of spent fuel that is now stored on-site at each of the nation’s 104 operating reactors and at commercial reactors that have been decommissioned. Although it found no unmanageable safety or security risks with current spent-fuel storage practices at reactor sites, it cautioned that “rigorous efforts will be needed to ensure this continues to be the case.” Spent fuel that is stored at decommissioned reactor sites should be the first in line for transport to consolidated storage, it said.

Chartered by Energy Secretary Steven Chu in January 2010 after President Obama terminated construction of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the commission also urged creation of a new government agency with the sole purpose of selecting the locations of the proposed interim storage and repository facilities. The proposed agency should be given the necessary financial and institutional resources, as well as sufficient authority, to make its policies stick……

Panel urges centralized storage facility and permanent repository for nuclear waste – Physics Today Politics and Policy

May 19, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes