nuclear-news

Short term tombs for radioactive trash, in Texas

Why a West Texas Nuclear Dump May Be a Short-Term Fix, KUT org By MICHAEL O’BRIEN, 28 JUNE 16, “…….Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County — currently storing contaminated rags, gloves, and other low-level nuclear waste — submitted an application in April which would allow them to receive high-level spent fuel.

The fuel would sit on-site, entombed in concrete-steel casks, until the DOE comes up with a permanent solution……..the majority of spent fuel  sits near the reactor in 45-foot deep, industrial grade pools.

Spent fuel is so hot when it comes out of the reactor that it has to sit submerged for a few years before it can be safely transported or even placed in those casks……

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) official stance is that the pools are so safe that there is no reason to spend billions of dollars moving all the spent fuel – the spent fuel cool enough to even move – into the dry-casks.

But the National Academy of Sciences warns that the NRC has under-estimated the risk. In May, the Academy published the final phase of its report on Fukushima and nuclear safety where it recommends “expediting” the spent fuel out of the pools and into the casks.

The pools are more vulnerable to accident or sabotage than the casks, the report states. The pools also hold much more fuel than does an individual cask ­– just one ruptured pool could cause a devastating radioactive fire capable of contaminating thousands of square miles……The heavily-guarded pools will continue to hold decades worth of spent fuel until the DOE comes up with a permanent storage solution or the NRC changes its guidelines. http://kut.org/post/why-west-texas-nuclear-dump-may-be-short-term-fix

June 29, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes