nuclear-news

World’s nuclear waste problem becoming ever more urgent

A New Urgency to the Problem of Storing Nuclear Waste, NYT By KATE GALBRAITH, November 27, 2011 AUSTIN, TEXAS — The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year caused many countries to rethink their appetite for nuclear power. It is also, in subtler ways, altering the fraught discussion of what to do with nuclear plants’ wastes.

A prime example is Germany, which decided to shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022 after the partial reactor meltdowns at Fukushima. That decision is making it easier for Germans to have a calm and focused discussion about a permanent disposal site for the plants’
wastes, analysts say.

Previously, opponents of nuclear power worried that backing a permanent solution for the wastes would make it easier for nuclear power plants to continue to exist, according to Michael Sailer, the chief executive at the Öko-Institut in Berlin, a research and consulting group focused on sustainability.

Anti-nuclear politicians, he said, felt that if they came out in favor of a permanent disposal site, “they support pro-nuclear people because they solve the waste problem.”….

Germany is now moving forward on the waste issue. Earlier this month,
leaders from around Germany met to discuss a permanent disposal
solution. They agreed to study a number of potential sites around the
country, according to Mr. Sailer, and eventually to make a
scientifically based decision about which sites to proceed with.

This development, Mr. Sailer said, represents a “huge” advance over
earlier efforts.

Other countries are also looking at waste in new ways in the
post-Fukushima world. Right now, worldwide, most spent fuel waste is
stored on the site of the facility that produced it, in spent-fuel
pools and, after it eventually cools, dry casks. Experts say dispersed
storage is expensive and that central storage would be more secure.

Few countries , apart from Sweden and Finland, have moved forward on
centralized disposal sites, deep in the earth, designed to hold the
waste permanently.

France is evaluating a permanent disposal site for spent fuel , near
the remote northeastern village of Bure. The country gets roughly
three-quarters of its power from nuclear plants and reprocesses its
fuel, a technique that reduces the quantity of waste but is expensive
and also creates plutonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons.

Japan also hopes to choose a site and build a geological disposal
facility in the coming decades.

Meanwhile, every aspect of nuclear power in Japan — including waste
storage — has been turned upside down by the Fukushima disaster in
March, which followed a giant earthquake and tsunami. As a result of
the accident, Japan has “doubled or tripled” the amount of non-spent
fuel and high-level waste, according to Murray Jennex, a nuclear
expert at San Diego State University. Even things like the building
that houses the turbine are contaminated, he noted.

“So that’s really increased their demand for storage, and I’m not sure
what they’re going to do with it,” Dr. Jennex said.

Japan is also considering what to do with the contaminated soil in the
area affected by the plant.

Experts say the post-Fukushima spotlight on all aspects of nuclear
safety will affect discussions of how, as well as where, to store
waste……

Some countries are starting to address the waste disposal issue simply
because they cannot put it off much longer. This is true of Britain,
where “it’s just gone on for so long, and there’s so much of it,” said
Ian Hore-Lacy, the head of communications for the World Nuclear
Association, which is based in London.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/business/energy-environment/a-new-urgency-to-the-problem-of-storing-nuclear-waste.html

November 28, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, wastes