nuclear-news

America’s nuclear industry at stalemate, because of its stranded wastes

Companies may ease nuclear waste backlog, news.com.au, OCTOBER 4, 2016, Timothy Gardner. Reuters “…… The waste is now mostly held at power plants in dry cask storage or in spent fuel pools, said Moniz, a nuclear physicist who has run the department since 2013.

The US could start transferring that waste to interim sites, potentially including government and private
disposal sites, in the middle of the next decade until a permanent solution is developed.

“We would like to have the authority for publicly owned and operated (storage) facilities. We are also very much interested in the possibility of pursuing private storage,” Moniz said in an interview about the nuclear issues the next administration will face after President Barack Obama leaves office….

some of his [Obama’s]  fellow Democrats have reservations about moving ahead with nuclear, which faces competition from natural gas, until the waste problem is solved.

Senator Diane Feinstein told Moniz at a recent congressional hearing she would not support new nuclear power projects unless the issue is dealt with.
Moniz said if companies take over storage, Congress will still need to act…….

Another thorny issue on nuclear waste has been an agreement with Russia to convert plutonium left over from the Cold War to nuclear plant fuel. Under the deal struck in 2000, each country is expected to convert 34 tons of the material into fuel pellets.

The federal government has spent about $US5 billion on a plant in South Carolina and associated facilities that would convert the material into MOX, or mixed-oxide pellets for reactors. But cost estimates for the project have soared, and now Moniz says the MOX method would cost up to $US50 billion over 50 years.

He wants the country to consider simply diluting the plutonium with inert materials and disposing the mix deep underground, such has been done for other nuclear materials in New Mexico…….

With many hurdles ahead on nuclear issues, speculation has grown on whether Moniz would remain in his role as energy secretary in the next administration…. http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/breaking-news/companies-may-ease-nuclear-waste-backlog/news-story/3b3077239e9b528a15fd453ea533d32a

October 5, 2016 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized