nuclear-news

Nuclear wastes problem: let’s not forget MILITARY nuclear wastes

Come January, Another Try on Nuclear Waste, By MATTHEW L. WALD, NYT, December 18, 2012, “……..As for the search for a permanent burial site, Mr. Wyden said the government should be looking for volunteers but that the site would have to be technically suitable. He also said he would like to explore separating the military wastes from the civilian wastes, and perhaps sending them to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project, which is in a salt deposit near Carlsbad, N.M. The repository is now used for plutonium-contaminated materials but not high-level waste.

The military wastes have been dear to Mr. Wyden’s heart for 30 years: many of them are in leaking tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington, across the Columbia River from his home state, Oregon. But those wastes would have to be solidified before they could be buried, and the Energy Department has had great difficulty doing that.

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, a Democrat who is head of the committee until the end of the lame duck session, has already introduced a bill to reform the process of picking a site, but action is unlikely this year. The lame duck session has failed so far to deal with its central task, a budget and tax compromise. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/come-january-another-try-on-nuclear-waste/?smid=fb-share

January 14, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes, weapons and war