wastes « nuclear-news

Nobody knows the future of USA’s nuclear wastes

“I would like to address an “elephant in the room” –What about the Blue Ribbon Commission? The Energy Collective 12 March 2010,

blue_ribbonSolutions to the issue of spent nuclear fuel won’t be decided solely at the NRC, nor with or without funding or a license application to review. A Blue Ribbon Commission, appointed by Energy Sec. Chu, will hold its first meeting March 25 & 26 in Washington, DC, to hash out policy alternatives. It will take them 18 months to produce a draft report. Alternatives include finding another geologic repository for spent fuel, reprocessing, use of fast reactors, and a lot of other ideas. No one has a lock on the future of what this body does.

A tale of two speeches

March 12, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, reactor | Leave a comment

They STILL don’t know what to do with nuclear waste!

Future of spent nuclear fuel, The Energy Collective, by Dan Yurman, 03/06/2010
A blue ribbon commission will hold its first meeting March 25-26 in Washington, DC

A panel of nuclear energy experts appointed by the federal government will take up the issue of what to do with 60,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Continue reading →

March 8, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

No depleted uranium for Salt Lake County!

A recent Salt Lake Tribune poll found 76 percent of Utah voters want to close the state’s door to depleted-uranium shipments.

Salt Lake County says N-O to D-U By Jeremiah StettlerThe Salt Lake Tribune 03/02/2010 If there’s one thing the state’s Republican governor and the Democratic-led Salt Lake County Council can agree on, it’s this: Depleted uranium doesn’t belong in Utah.

Continue reading →

March 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, uranium | Leave a comment

Opposition to UK Naval nuclear waste dump

UK port becoming ‘nuclear dumping ground’ TwoCircles.net 23 February 2010 – 12:12pm. * InternationalBy IRNA,London : Europe’s largest single issue peace organisation is warning the British government against plans to use a naval dockyard base as a centre for dismantling radioactive submarines.The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has voiced concern about the safety record of Devonport dockyard in south-west England and its position in the middle of Plymouth city as being inappropriate site as a ‘nuclear dumping ground.’ Continue reading →

February 24, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes | Leave a comment

UK’s nuclear navy scrapyard problem

Navy dock in danger of becoming a ‘nuclear dumping ground’ The Guardian Matthew Taylor, 22 February 2010The MoD has put forward plans to use the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth as a centre for dismantling radioactive submarines
Military chiefs are running out of space to store the UK’s growing number of obsolete nuclear submarines, prompting fears that one of the country’s busiest naval ports is set to be turned into a nuclear scrapyard. Continue reading →

February 23, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive | Leave a comment

Utah resisting dumping of depleted uranium radioactive nuclear wastes

Utah gov: 2 trains of SC waste won’t come to Utah, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Brock Bergakis, February 22, 2010. SALT LAKE CITY — About 6,500 tons of low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina won’t be coming to Utah as originally planned, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Monday in announcing a verbal agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy. Continue reading →

February 23, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

USA’s $96 billion nuclear waste mess

the federal government continues to search for suitable sites for storage of high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and for very long-lived radioactive materials from weapons production.

For the time being high-level waste remain on the sites where they were generated…….

Where to dump nuclear waste? Manila Bulletin By ATTY. ROMEO V. PEFIANCO February 17, 2010, Dumping nuclear waste has been a serious problem in the US since 1970 Continue reading →

February 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radiation, radioactive, Westinghouse | Leave a comment

Strong opposition to importing nuclear waste: opinion poll

Radioactive waste not welcome here: Poll Overwhelming majority says Utah is not the right place for depleted uranium and foreign radioactive waste By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune 02/01/2010 Utahns strongly support a federal ban on importing radioactive waste from foreign nations.

And, even more strongly, they oppose the disposal of thousands of tons of depleted uranium in their state. Continue reading →

February 2, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

All sides unhappy with Obama’s nuclear waste panel

Left and Right Pan Obama’s Panel on Nuclear Waste THE WALL STREET JOURNAL , by Stephen Power February 1, 2010, It took the Obama administration nearly a year to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to study what to do with nuclear waste piling up at power plants — and just a few hours for politicians and groups on the left and right to raise questions about the panel’s mandate and credibility. Continue reading →

February 2, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

Utah’s heavy burden from uranium

Depleted uranium gets more and more hazardous for at least 1 million years. In contrast, most of the Class A waste at the Utah site is supposed to pose virtually no radiation risk after 100 years………..

Public largely critical of depleted uranium disposal – State has already borne a heavy burden from the nuclear industry, one Utahn says. By Judy FahysThe Salt Lake Tribune: 01/26/2010 Utah’s depleted uranium regulations should ensure no harm will come to the public or the environment as long as the waste remains dangerous — and that, said some Utahns on Tuesday, means the radioactive waste does not belong in a shallow disposal site in western Utah. Continue reading →

January 27, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Governments seriously pursue nuclear power despite unsolved waste problem!

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

The response below should be widely read. It is relevant for all places where new nuclear projects are planned, (as well as where longer life for aging reactors is planned.)

As a simple member of the “peasantry” “the great unwashed”, the “hoi polloi”, I am puzzled that the Experts and the Powers That Be – anywhere, can seriously contemplate going ahead with this new nuclear charade.

I fear that their inability to deal with existing nuclear waste is somehow propelling them into making more of the stuff – just so that future generations will have to cope with the problem, – as if, somehow, that gets today’s leaders off the hook, for now.

I know that this is weird and twisted logic – but IS IT THEIR LOGIC, anyway?

January 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes, politics, UK, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

UK’s Nuclear Policy is a farce, especially re waste disposal

The document concludes: In short, the Government’s conclusion “…that effective arrangements will exist to manage and dispose of the waste that will be produced from new nuclear power stations” is not supported by the evidence. The Nuclear National Policy Statement is, therefore, not “fit for purpose”.

Stop oldbury: Response to Consultation on Nuclear National Policy Statement, Philip Booth 23 Jan 2010 “…..Reactor designs being discussed lead to additional concerns For example the French ‘European Pressurised Reactor’ proposed will use intensive ‘high burn-up fuel’ increasing the risk of high quantities of radiation in a serious accident. This fuel is so hot and radioactive it will also need to be stored on site for 160 years, long after the power company has ceased generating electricity, creating an additional local hazard. Continue reading →

January 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster, UK, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radioactive | Leave a comment

Highly radioactive nuclear waste begins its secret journey to Japan

Nuclear waste shipment leaves Britain for Japan Telegraph.co By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 21 Jan 2010 Environmentalists in Japan have expressed concern about the first shipment of highly radioactive waste to leave britain under a controversial repatriation scheme, saying any accident to befall the ship transporting the waste would result in an “environmental disaster”. Continue reading →

January 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

There’s money in nuclear waste, (never mind the danger)

A French state-controlled company, Areva, is now the world’s largest processor of nuclear waste and is keen to secure a bigger share as countries such as China and India expand their nuclear activities rapidly.

Where there’s nuclear muck there’s a growing opportunity for brass TIMESONLINE Robin Pagnamenta: January 21, 2010

“…………Only a handful of countries have the expertise and technology for nuclear reprocessing, in which spent nuclear fuel rods from power stations are chopped up and boiled in acid to extract uranium and plutonium for reuse in a reactor. The by-product is a concentrated form of vitrified nuclear waste that is as nasty as it sounds. Continue reading →

January 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, wastes | antinuclear, AREVA, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive | Leave a comment

Where to store Nuclear Waste for hundreds of thousands of years?

politics, and not the welfare of future generations, is at the center of the nuclear waste issue. To protect those generations, a site must be found where radioactive waste can be allowed to slowly decay over hundreds of thousands of years, far away from any living creatures

Germany’s Endless Search for a Nuclear Waste Dump SPIEGELONLINE 15 Jan 2010 Germany has been looking for a permanent storage site for its nuclear waste for over 30 years. The history of the Gorleben salt dome, a potential nuclear repository, is one full of deception and political maneuvering. And if opponents to the plans have their way, the search might even have to start again from scratch………….. Continue reading →

January 17, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment