nuclear-news

Wobbly words from USA, as it has no solution to its nuclear wastes

Solution to nuclear waste remains in limbo, Greenville Online, 20 June 12,  “….. The nuclear industry has produced about 65,000 metric tons since its inception, and 2,000 more per year must be stored in deep pools of water and moved above ground to steel containers reinforced with concrete — all at the sites of the country’s 104 nuclear reactors…..

 the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future was created and tasked with finding a solution …

In discussions of how to dispose of nuclear waste, terms such as “temporary” and “interim” are defined in timelines extending more than 100 years.

In 1987, Congress dismissed two other options being studied to designate Yucca Mountain as the only site the Department of Energy could consider for a permanent repository. Nevada at the time lacked political clout, and the decision has long been described by the state as the “screw Nevada bill.”

Twenty five years later, the government is back where it started. The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, in its long-anticipated report, said recently that just selecting a new site could take as long as 20 years…..
Two years ago, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a “waste confidence decision” declaring that storage of spent fuel at reactors is safe despite the fact that the country has no place to store it permanently.

The fuel rods must cool in large pools near the reactor for several
years before they can be moved into “dry cask” containers.

Instead, the regulatory commission relies on the notion that a permanent site will be operating by the time it is necessary.

June 21, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster, USA