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30,000 tons of Chernobyl radioactive waste to last thousands of years

there is no long-term plan for dealing with a radioactive legacy that will remain for several millennia…..no one knows where the radioactive wreckage of the ruined reactor and the roughly 30,000 tons of material containing fuel are to be stored…the water problem remains unresolved.

Beyond the Sarcophagus, The Overwhelming Challenge of Containing Chernobyl, Spiegel Online, By Benjamin Bidder, 1 May 11,   Work on the new sarcophagus meant to contain Chernobyl’s reactor 4 is a decade behind schedule. But significant problems will remain even once it is complete. For one, it is only meant to last for 100 years. For another, no one knows what to do with the vast quantities of radioactive waste left behind. Continue reading →

May 2, 2011 Posted by | safety, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear reactor shut down takes 10 years, and wastes remain

Ill. congressmen worried over nuclear waste, ABC 7 News, Michelle Gallardo April23, 2011 (ZION, Ill.) (WLS) — U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and some Republican congressmen toured the Zion nuclear power plant Saturday — it is shut down and slowly being dismantled. The big concern there revolves around what’s being done with more than 1,000 tons of radioactive waste.

It will take 10 years before the now-shuttered Zion nuclear power plant is completely decommissioned. By the time all is said and done, all that will remain of the 38-year-old plant is a 10-acre lot where the reactor’s spent fuel rods will be stored…..http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8090578

April 24, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Huge and unprecedented problems in Fukushima nuclear cleanup

The scale and complexity of the challenge is unprecedented. No nuclear reactor has ever been fully decommissioned in Japan, let alone the four certain to be dismantled at Fukushima

Nuclear Cleanup Plans Hinge on Unknowns, NYTimes.com, By HIROKO TABUCHI  April 14, 2011 “…..he widely divergent outlooks underscore the basic uncertainties clouding any forecast for Fukushima: when cooling stems will be restored and radiation emission halted; how soon workers can access some parts of the plant; and how bad the damage to the reactors, their fuel, and nearby stored fuel turns out to be. Continue reading →

April 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

Yucca Mountain is NOT the answer to USA’s nuclear wastes

This threat should disqualify the site, especially when combined with the fact that Southwestern water resources will be polluted with radiation as waste canisters at Yucca Mountain disintegrate over time.

Solving the problem of nuclear waste The Hill’s Congress Blog By Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) 12 April 11 – At a time when our nation is making tough choices about spending, I am amazed that Congressman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and other House Republicans are demanding we dump $100 billion into Yucca Mountain. This shuttered boondoggle, located 90 minutes from Las Vegas, is nothing more than an empty hole in the Nevada desert.

While some are seeking to use the tragic events in Japan to once again push for moving nuclear waste to Nevada, they fail to mention that Yucca Mountain is located smack in the middle of an earthquake zone. Continue reading →

April 13, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Call for new rules on USA’s nuclear wastes

US lawmaker calls for new nuclear waste rules
*  Feinstein says waste should move to dry storage faster

* Study found that dry cask storage less risky than pools

* NRC has said waste could stay in pools for 100 years

By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) – A top Senate Democrat on Monday urged the U.S. nuclear regulator to require plants to speed up the shift of radioactive waste to dry cask storage from pools. Continue reading →

April 12, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Facts on plutonium and Mox nuclear fuel

some reactors do use Mox, but only as a small percentage (less than 30 per cent) of the total fuel. The rest of the fuel is conventional uranium oxide…Mox, which in any case remains far more expensive than conventional uranium fuel…

(UK) Government’s doomed  £6bn plan to dispose of nuclear waste,  The Independent, 11 April 11“……Q & A: Why has it come to this?

Q: What is Britain’s “plutonium mountain”?

A: It is the nation’s stockpile of radioactive plutonium, kept as plutonium dioxide powder, packed into special drums stored at Sellafield in Cumbria. A further, smaller amount is stored at the Dounreay nuclear facility in Scotland, the site of the doomed nuclear fast-breeder reactor programme. Continue reading →

April 11, 2011 Posted by | - plutonium, reprocessing, UK | Leave a comment

Florida and 30 other US States endangered by nuclear cooling ponds

“It would be hard to manage this hazard (more) foolishly. The federal government’s ineptitude in disposing of spent fuel has left Americans across the country exposed to elevated and undue risks,”

Japan’s crisis adds fuel to Florida nuclear fears. The Palm Beach Post, 11 April 11, Once, the thousands of 12-foot-long rods now being stored in 40-foot-deep pools of water at Florida Power & Light Co.’s two South Florida nuclear plants helped power the state’s electric grid.Their job is done. However, the used, or “spent,” fuel rods have not gone anywhere. Continue reading →

April 11, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Britain has world’s biggest pile of plutonium and now Japan won’t buy it

Chubu Electric and nine other Japanese power companies have also indicated that because of long-term production problems that have dogged the SMP, they will not now be taking any reprocessed fuel from Britain until at least the end of the decade – nearly 20 years after the plant was opened to serve the Japanese market.

Government’s doomed £6bn plan to dispose of nuclear waste, The Independent, 11 April 11, One month after the Japanese tsunami, the world’s biggest reserve of plutonium waste is reaching crisis point. It was meant to be reprocessed and sold – but now no nation will take it. So where is this vast stockpile? Not Fukushima, but Sellafield, CumbriaBy Steve Connor, Science Editor The nuclear crisis in Japan threatens a carefully choreographed UK Government plan to tackle the world’s biggest mountain of plutonium waste stored at the Sellafield site in Cumbria. Continue reading →

April 11, 2011 Posted by | - plutonium, politics international, UK | Leave a comment

Prevention of nuclear meltdown causes radioactive water problem

Cleaning the water could take many years, if not decades to complete. The cost could run into tens of billions of dollars..

Containing a calamity creates another nuclear nightmare, Sydney Morning Herald, Julie Makinen, Ralph Vartabedian April 9, 2011, TOKYO: For nearly four weeks, Japanese emergency crews have been spraying water on the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors in a desperate attempt to avert the calamity of a full meltdown.The improvised solution to one nuclear nightmare is spawning another: what to do with the millions of litres of water that has become highly radioactive as it washes through the plant. Continue reading →

April 9, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

Facts on radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods

How urgent is the situation?
Fairly urgent. The NRC predicts that at the rate we’re discarding rods—about 2,000 tons a year—we’ll run out of existing storage space by 2015…..

Radioactive fuel rods: The silent threat – The Week, 9 April 11, Japan’s nuclear crisis has highlighted the danger of the spent fuel rods piling up outside America’s nuclear plants Continue reading →

April 9, 2011 Posted by | technology, wastes | 3 Comments

Refuting George Monbiot on the dangers of ionising radiation

If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer….]t’s imperative that people understand that internal emitters cause cancer, but the incubation time for cancer is any time from two to 60 years. …

VIDEO Nuclear industry propaganda about low-level radiation is “absolute rubbish” says physician who taught at Harvard Med School — It’s all about internal emitters (VIDEO) « Energy News Energy News, HELEN CALDICOTT, 4 April 11, : … Up to a million people have already died from Chernobyl, and people will continue to die from cancer for virtually the rest of time. Continue reading →

April 4, 2011 Posted by | - plutonium | 1 Comment

The taxpayers’ bill for nuclear wastes continues to rise

Regional plants have a bleak history of underestimating plant decommissioning costs by hundreds of millions, sometimes loading those unanticipated costs onto taxpayers and ratepayers far into the future……

“If a nuclear renaissance were to take place — if it were not just a figment or wishful thinking — we would need another Yucca Mountain every few years,”….”Independent analysis suggests that new nuclear power is more expensive than nearly every other energy source, including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy,” …… “Given that reality, I cannot understand why we would continue to pour massive taxpayer subsidies into nuclear power.”.

Taxpayers, utility ratepayers face mounting nuclear bills, Maggie Mulvihill, Shay Totten and Matt Porter, New England Center for Investigative Reporting,   April 2, 2011Over three decades, New England’s electricity consumers and nuclear plant owners have poured close to $1 billion into a federal nuclear-waste storage fund, holding up their end of a 1982 deal with the federal government to finance the permanent storage of thousands of tons of spent fuel from the region’s reactors. Continue reading →

April 4, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Nuked up Republicans lying about Yucca Mountains as safe nuke waste dump

Berkley calls on ‘nuked-up’ Republicans to cease Yucca Mountain probe  The Hill By Pete Kasperowicz – 04/01/11 Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) on Friday called on House Republicans to stop their investigation  into an Obama administration decision to abandon Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as a planned storage site for nuclear waste.

Speaking on the House floor, Berkley said the GOP investigation is a “political stunt” aimed at turning Nevada into a “nuclear garbage dump.”

“Those pushing this review are lying about the dump’s safety,” Berkley said. “They know Yucca Mountain is smack in the middle of an earthquake zone. There’s volcanic activity. There’s groundwater issues. Have we learned nothing abbot what’s happening now in Japan?”

Berkley added that the investigation is being prompted by the nuclear industry, and is being aided by its “nuked-up buddies” in Congress….. Berkley calls on ‘nuked-up’ Republicans to cease Yucca Mountain probe – The Hill’s E2-Wire

April 2, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Even an undamaged nuclear reactor takes decades to decommission

Experts: Scrapping Fukushima plant could take decades, asahi.com（朝日新聞社）2 April 11, “…..Even an undamaged nuclear reactor takes decades to decommission. After the fuel rods are removed, all of the pipes to the core have to be sealed. The inactive reactor then has to be kept airtight for five to 10 years, allowing radiation levels within the core to fall. The core is then dismantled and removed. Finally, the building that houses the core is taken down. In order to stop radiation from leaking into the atmosphere, more contaminated parts of the building have to be removed before parts with low levels of radiation….”asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：Experts: Scrapping Fukushima plant could take decades – English

April 2, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, decommission reactor | Leave a comment

USA’s nuclear wastes continue to pile up, mainly in cooling ponds

There is about 70,000 tons of spent fuel stored at reactor sites around the country. Three-quarters of the material sits in cooling pools.

While Nuclear Waste Piles up in U.S., Billions in Fund to Handle It Sit Unused,  ProPublica, by Joaquin SapienProPublica, March 30, 2011 “……In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and the federal government effectively struck a deal with the nuclear industry: Reactor operators and their customers would pay a tax on the waste they produced, and the government would use the money to create a safe place to store it for generations. Continue reading →

March 31, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

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