nuclear-news

Problems in France’s plan for 100,000 years of nuclear waste storage

“No geologist can guarantee that there will never be water infiltration in the places intended for storage,”

Europeans Pursue Labyrinths of Nuclear Waste,  NYTimes.com, By SUE LANDAU, June 2, 2011 BURE, FRANCE —”…….Gérald Ouzounian, the international director at Andra, said that research had found that this hard clay had a water content of just 15 percent, and that water remained in the clay rather than moving through it. This is critical for the repository, because it must prevent radioactivity seeping out into groundwater and contaminating soil, plants, animals, and ultimately, human beings.

“The enemy is water,” Mr. Ouzounian said. “Having only 15 percent water in clay is like not having any water at all.”…..

assurances cut little ice with opponents of the plan.

“No geologist can guarantee that there will never be water infiltration in the places intended for storage,” said Jean-Marie Brom, a research director in particle physics at C.R.N.S., the French national research institute, and a veteran anti-nuclear campaigner.

A Greenpeace review of research on geological repositories, published in September, listed several scientific caveats, including a lack of understanding of the multiple chemical interactions that may occur; doubts about the accuracy of computer modeling over long time scales; and the possibility of an earthquake or other disturbance to the site during the repository’s life.

“Are we really ready,” said Helen Wallace, the report’s author and a physicist who works with Greenpeace, “to say we understand enough about this option of putting it underground, which does mean at this stage of scientific knowledge crossing your fingers and hoping none of these things really do go wrong?”

Europeans Pursue Labyrinths of Nuclear Waste – NYTimes.com

June 3, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, wastes