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Secret shipment of radioactive spent nuclear fuel to South Carolina

This shipment of research reactor fuel to SRS in no way means that the public is open to receipt of highly radioactive commercial spent fuel from U.S. nuclear reactors for consolidated storage at SRS, which some narrow special interests are eyeing

Radioactive Spent Fuel Containing Bomb-Grade Uranium Arriving at SRS  http://aikenleader.villagesoup.com/blog/blogpost/radioactive-spent-fuel-containing-bomb-grade-uranium-arriving-at-srs/881381
By Thomas Clements | Aug 09, 2012  A secretive shipment of radioactive spent research reactor fuel containing highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany is soon to arrive at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina, where it will be indefinitely stored.  The shipment is likely to be transiting the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, South Carolina. Continue reading →

August 10, 2012 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

USA’s mounting nuclear wastes influenced NRC decision to halt reactor licensing

More than 65,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel is stored at operating and shuttered reactor sites across the country. But those 72 sites in 34 states are filling up. Some 2,000 additional tons of waste are produced each year, according to a report released this year by the president’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. …..

As Nuclear Waste Problem Persists, Federal Regulators Freeze Licensing for Reactors Aug. 8, 2012 Jim Malewitz, Stateline.org The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) won’t sign off on licenses for news and existing nuclear power plants until the commission addresses a decades-old problem plaguing states: what to do with spent fuel rods and other hazardous waste piling up at storage sites across the country.

In a unanimous decision on Tuesday (August 7), the commission said it
will hold off licensing plants that are new or up for renewal. That’s
until it responds to a court’s ruling that the NRC failed to consider
the environmental impacts of continuing to store waste at sites meant
to be temporary.

Licensing reviews will continue, the commission said, but no final
decisions will be made.

More than 65,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel is stored at operating and shuttered reactor sites across the country. But those 72 sites in 34 states are filling up. Some 2,000 additional tons of waste are produced each year, according to a report released this year by the
president’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. …..
In June, a federal appeals court threw out the commission’s “waste
confidence rule” and “temporary storage rule,” decisions that
collectively approved the status quo for onsite storage. Siding with
environmentalists and four states led by New York, the court said the
commission’s rulemaking process was flawed in that it did not
calculate the environmental effects of failing to secure a permanent
disposal site _ “a possibility that cannot be ignored,” the court
ruled. The NRC also, according to the court, “failed to examine future
dangers and key consequences,” in its determination that spent nuclear
fuel could be safely stored at nuclear sites for up to 60 years after
their license expires. ….
Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, hailed the NRC’s
decision to halt the licensing of reactors.

“The storage of nuclear waste at nuclear power facilities poses
long-term health and environmental risks, including the risk of leaks
from spent fuel pools and fires, he said in a statement yesterday.
“The NRC’s commitment is a welcome step toward ensuring a full, fair
and open examination of the numerous critical questions about the
safety and environmental impact of Indian Point before any decisions
are made about extending its operating licenses for another 20 years.”

August 10, 2012 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Bingaman Proposes Overhaul Of Nuclear Waste Disposal, By Erica Teichert Law360, Washington (August 02, 2012,) –– Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., introduced a bill Wednesday that could alter the country’s approach to nuclear waste management policy based on recommendations of a presidential panel, saying he hoped the bill
would foster more constructive bipartisan negotiations on the issue.

The bill — S. 3469, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2012 — pushes for a new oversight body separate from the U.S. Department of Energy to oversee nuclear waste management and recommends a content-based approach to determine the sites for waste
repositories….. Subscriber only
http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/366065/bingaman-proposes-overhaul-of-nuclear-waste-disposal

August 4, 2012 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Los Alamos National Laboratory – plutonium facility not safe

The plutonium facility was designed and built in the 1970s and lacks the earthquake resistance required by modern building codes

Safety Board Calls Nuclear Lab’s Earthquake Resistance Analysis ‘Technically Inadequate’ HUFFINGTON POST, Mia SteinleInvestigator, Project On Government Oversight, 30 july 12,  An ongoing government analysis of an important nuclear weapons laboratory’s ability to withstand earthquakes may be flawed, according to a federal oversight panel. Continue reading →

July 31, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, USA | Leave a comment

UK hastening plan to bury radioactive waste

Govt fast-tracks nuclear dumps despite warnings, The Independent/London, 29 July 12 The burial of radioactive nuclear waste is to be fast-tracked by the government despite warnings about the risks.
Ministers have revealed an “enduring ambition” for Britain’s first burial of waste from nuclear power stations to happen as early as 2029, instead of 2040 as originally planned, The Independent on Sunday revealed. Continue reading →

July 30, 2012 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Veil of secrecy over France’s unaffordable nuclear power decommissioning

“What is not tolerable is that the funds are managed by the operators” 

Over the past six years there has been a veritable veil pulled over this subject.”

French Nuclear Dismantling Funds May Fall Short, Report Says http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-24/french-nuclear-dismantling-funds-may-fall-short-report-says.html By Tara Patel – Jul 24, 2012 Electricite de France SA and Areva SA (AREVA), along with other French nuclear operators, may not be setting aside enough funds to pay for future dismantling of reactors and treatment and storage of atomic waste, according to a parliamentary report. Continue reading →

July 25, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, France, Reference | Leave a comment

Nuclear waste travelling from Italy to La Hague, France

“In both Italy and France, nuclear energy is at an impasse: they don’t know what to do with nuclear waste”

Italians voted overwhelmingly against a return to nuclear energy in a
June 2011 referendum

Convoy taking Italian spent nuclear fuel to France: reports
http://www.expatica.com/fr/news/french-news/convoy-taking-italian-spent-nuclear-fuel-to-france-reports_238702.html 24/07/2012 A rail convoy  highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from Italy to France set off from the northern Italian town of Saluggia overnight, Italian media reported Tuesday. Continue reading →

July 25, 2012 Posted by | France, Italy, wastes | Leave a comment

There’s money to be made in nuclear decommissioning

Olympic Park builder eyes nuclear wind-down deal http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/olympic-park-builder-eyes-nuclear-winddown-deal-7965171.html MARK LEFTLY   MONDAY 23 JULY 2012 The US group that led construction of the Olympic Park and a New York-listed rival are the latest companies considering bids to oversee the UK’s £5bn nuclear decommissioning programme. Continue reading →

July 23, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK | Leave a comment

Dispute over UK plan for underground nuclear waste bunker

Kent and Shepway councils in Romney Marsh nuclear waste row, BBC News 19 July 12 The facility would have nuclear waste underground with research facilities at ground level Two council leaders have clashed over a report opposing plans for a nuclear waste facility on the Romney Marsh. The report, co-authored by Kent County Council leader Paul Carter, has been criticised by Shepway council leader Robert Bliss as emotive and inaccurate.


Mr Carter said he believed the report, which said the facility would blight the area, was factually correct but Mr Bliss said it was a knee-jerk reaction.

Earlier, Kent County Council voted to “totally oppose” the facility. The area is already the site of Dungeness nuclear power station, where Dungeness A is being commissioned and Dungeness B is due to stop generating power in 2018 or 2023…….

Public consultation On Thursday, Kent County Council voted to oppose the establishment ofa nuclear research and development facility in the county. It also agreed that if Shepway council decided to progress the proposal further, Kent council should review whether or not to hold acounty-wide referendum…

The facility would place nuclear waste in secure containers underground in vaults and tunnels, and at ground level, buildings would house research, office, transport and other facilities. The Shepway consultation is asking people whether it should find out more information about a possible facility on the Marsh. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18917732

July 20, 2012 Posted by | politics, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

TEPCO covering seafloor with enormous amounts of concrete. Why?

Tepco completes covering seafloor with layers of cement mix — More coating used at Reactors 5 & 6 than for Reactors 1, 2, 3 & 4 combined (PHOTOS & VIDEOS)  July 19th, 2012   By ENENews   http://enenews.com/tepco-completes-covering-seafloor-with-layers-of-cement-mix-more-coating-used-outside-reactors-5-6-than-for-reactors-1-2-3-4-combined-photos-videos

And all those funny looking black containers which were placed/dropped into the water..just COVER those things up with LAYERS of CONCRETE. Next generation can worry about it. Sadly, Mr. TEPCOman, one has to ask WHAT next generation will be healthy enough to work the problem?

One question to ask..what happened at Reactors 5 and 6 to require as much concrete or MORE than Reactors 1-4? Were more containers dumped into the ocean? More meltdown corium heading for the ocean..or is the ground so unstable..I hope its not the last. Subsidence(loss of ground HEIGHT) could be raising its ugly head. That is bad– almost as bad as Reactor 1-4 “payloads.”

Also note the non-concern of “radiation” going out into the OCEAN. What do they think the ocean is? An endless pit? Its not.

July 20, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Japan, oceans, Resources -audiovicual, wastes | Leave a comment

“Waste Confidence Rule” allows nuclear waste keep growing, with no solution!

the NRC also stated that it ‘retains confidence that spent fuel can be safely stored with no significant environmental impact until a repository can reasonably be expected to be available and that the Commission has a target date for the availability of the repository in that circumstance’” 

As a result of its confidence in the safety of spent fuel storage, NRC rules note that “no discussion of any environmental impact of spent fuel storage in reactor facility storage pools or independent spent fuel storage installations for the period following the term of the reactor operating license . . . is required in any environmental report, environmental impact statement, environmental assessment or other analysis prepared in connection with the issuance or amendment of an operating license for a nuclear reactor,” 

Group seeks to have spent fuel a factor in re-licensing Limerick plant The Mercury By Evan Brandt  07/17/12  LIMERICK “…….Spent fuel rods are what remains after the uranium pellets inside the fuel rods in a reactor no longer generate enough heat to create the steam that turns the turbines and generates electricity at a nuclear power plant.

Although cooler, this spent fuel remains radioactive to some extent for hundreds of years. For years, spent fuel was kept in concrete “spent fuel pools” located inside a nuclear plant and filled with water to keep it from overheating.

According to the NRDC filing, in 2008 NRC proposed “‘remov(ing) its expectation that a repository (for spent fuel) will be available by 2025’ and acknowledged that its previous finding that sufficient disposal capacity would be available within 30 years after any
reactor’s licensed life ‘is not supportable.’”  Continue reading →

July 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Reference, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

For relicensing nuclear plants, Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not consider costs of spent fuel disposal

Paradoxically, while the NRC allows potential earnings from a re-licensed plant to be considered as a way to cover the costs of plant shut-down, it does not consider the potential for those added years of operation to generate additional spent fuel when calculating the cost of shutting the plant down.

Group seeks to have spent fuel a factor in re-licensing Limerick plant The Mercury By Evan Brandt  07/17/12  LIMERICK — Despite a recent federal court ruling invalidating a rule that would allow storage of radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods at nuclear power plants for 60 years after they’ve closed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no plans to consider the issue when deciding on whether to re-license Exelon Nuclear’s Limerick Generating Station    for an additional 20 years.

The   National Resources Defense Council    disagrees with that position and filed papers July 9 seeking to amend   its challenge to Exelon’s re-licensing  application Continue reading →

July 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Burying dead nuclear reactors – expensive, but lucrative for some!

consultancy Arthur D. Little has put the total costs at no less than €18 billion…..

Dismantling a nuclear plant until it has completely vanished can take several decades, depending on which technique is used.

the process of fully decommissioning a plant can take more than 40 years,

Germany’s pricey nuclear burial, Climate Spectator , 18 Jul 2012, Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff  “…..by 2014, almost nothing will be left of what once was Germany’s first commercial boiling water reactor. Germany’s decision to shut down all nuclear plants by 2022,
sparked by last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, is a done deal……

… a giant hole in the ground where the reactor vessel used to be. Work to decommission plants mainly includes removing and disposing of contaminated material as well as decommissioning the plants themselves while making sure that no radiation spreads.

Spent fuel from reactors needs to be encased and then transported to safe fuel dumps while cooling towers, often regarded a blight on landscapes, then need demolishing…..

Today, the four operators of nuclear plants in Germany – E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall – have made a total of more than €30 billion ($36.7 billion) in provisions for the dismantling of the plants and the disposal of nuclear waste. Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Germany, Reference | Leave a comment

Expensive and difficult – the nuclear waste storage and security problem

meanwhile the company was paying workers to monitor the fuel and keep the plant safe……
Removal of the fuel is a crucial step in dismantling the plant, a project that could take another seven years.

A nuclear option: After 25 years, Genoa reactor’s waste gets new home There are 333 fuel assemblies  each a 6-by-6 inch bundle of 100 eight-foot metal rods filled with uranium dioxide pellets roughly the size of a pencil eraser  sitting in a storage tank under about 15 feet of water on the top level of the reactor containment building in Genoa. The fuel contains elements including plutonium, cesium and strontium that are radioactive byproducts of nuclear reactions. Though no longer fissile enough to power a plant, they will continue to emit harmful radiation  and some heat  for thousands of years. La Crosse tribune •  By Chris Hubbuch 15 July 12

MUNICIPAL IMPACT Dairyland Power is moving 333 spent nuclear fuel assemblies only 0.4
miles to the south, but the move could have major ramifications for the village of Genoa.

Under Wisconsin law, counties and municipalities hosting nuclear fuel receive $50,000 a year from money set aside by utilities to offset additional costs.

Because Dairyland sits just on the border of the village of Genoa and the town of Genoa, the village gets $40,000 and the town $10,000.

But the dry storage site is fully in the town, which means moving the fuel would cost the village $40,000 — about 30 percent of its annual operating budget. Continue reading →

July 16, 2012 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

France’s huge and growing nuclear waste problem

Nuclear waste in France set to double http://www.upi.com/Science News/2012/07/13/Nuclear-waste-in-France-set-to-double/UPI 21671342208921/#ixzz20dUEDe8D  PARIS, July 13 (UPI) –– France’s nuclear waste agency says the amount of such waste in the country will double by 2030, and some of it will remain radioactive for 2 million years.

The current 45 million cubic feet of nuclear waste in France is likely to reach 95 million cubic feet in the next 18 years, a report by Andra, the agency charged with stocking and disposing of nuclear waste, said.

The current amount of waste represents 4 pounds for every person in the country.

With nuclear power the principle source of electricity in France, the Andra report warns of major problems stockpiling waste, Radio France Internationale reported. While only 0.2 percent of current stocks are highly radioactive, some of the material, such as neptunium 237, can remain active for more than 2 million years.

The socialist government of Francois Hollande has resisted pressure from its coalition partners to drastically reduce the nuclear power industry, responsible for 59 percent of all the nuclear waste generated in the country, RFI reported.

July 14, 2012 Posted by | France, Reference, wastes | Leave a comment

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