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Nuclear issues looming in USA Republican presidential debates

Ron Paul got cheers and applause in Las Vegas when he said: “What right does 49 states have to punish one state and say, we’re going to put our garbage in your state? I think that’s wrong.’’

In South Carolina, though, things play differently

 Nuclear Waste Is Likely to Come Up at Next Debate NYT By MATTHEW W. WALD, November 10, 2011, Most of the Republican presidential candidates said exactly the right thing about nuclear waste when they debated in Las Vegas in October — that they were against opening the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain. But when they meet in Spartanburg, S.C., on Saturday, that will be exactly the wrong thing to say.
Ron Paul got cheers and applause in Las Vegas when he said: “What right does 49 states have to punish one state and say, we’re going to put our garbage in your state? I think that’s wrong.’’

Mitt Romney echoed the thought. “The idea that 49 states can tell
Nevada, ‘We want to give you our nuclear waste’ doesn’t make a lot of
sense,’’ he said.

Rick Perry said that he often did not agree with Mr. Romney, but that
he had hit the nail “right on the head.”

Only Newt Gingrich disagreed; he said geologists believed that the
site, about 100 miles from Las Vegas, was sound. (Three other
candidates – Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum — did not
get a chance to answer the question. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. did not take
part in the debate, but is also against Yucca.)

In South Carolina, though, things play differently. The state is home
not only to seven commercial nuclear power reactors, some of which
have been creating waste since 1971, but also to the giant Savannah
River Site, which for decades produced plutonium and tritium for
nuclear weapons. Along the way, Savannah River also produced huge
volumes of nuclear waste, which was stored in steel tanks. The Energy
Department is slowly pumping out those wastes and mixing them into
glass to immobilize the material. While still molten, the glass is
poured into stainless steel canisters. The canisters were supposed to
go to Yucca.

So South Carolina and Washington State, which had a similar bomb
factory, filed suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
compel the commission to evaluate the suitability of Yucca Mountain.
….
The Republicans are generally favorable towards nuclear power – as
most of South Carolina is. Only two reactor projects have any chance
of being built in the United States in the near future, one in South
Carolina and the other in Georgia. One in Texas was in the early
stages, and Mr. Perry supported a loan guarantee for that project, but
later said he had changed his mind and did not favor energy subsidies.
Mr. Romney favors nuclear power, and Mr. Paul said in the debate,
“Nuclear energy, I think, is a good source of energy,” but he also
said that he disliked subsidies.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/nuclear-waste-is-likely-to-come-up-at-next-debate/

November 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized