nuclear-news

Boom in ”decommissioning” nuclear reactors brings worries about financial costs, and safety

Environmental & Energy Study Institute 30th March 2021, The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held an online briefing on nuclear energy issues, including the current economics of the U.S. nuclear power industry, how to approach decommissioning as more civilian reactors shut down, and what to do with their high-level radioactive waste.

In particular, the briefing assessed the impacts of extending the licenses of existing nuclear plants and pursuing “advanced reactors” as a way to fight climate change.

As U.S. nuclear plants age out or become unprofitable, the growing number of shuttered reactors has spawned a new
decommissioning business model that promises to remediate sites quickly, but also raises new questions about safety, financial assurance, cleanup standards, and waste disposition. Decommissioning companies want to ship highly radioactive spent fuel through 75 percent of Congressional districts to their proposed consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs) in New Mexico and Texas, which overburdened residents there oppose.

https://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/033021nuclear

April 5, 2021 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized