wastes « nuclear-news

Opposition to re-opening of Germany’s controversial nuclear waste dump

A phase-out of nuclear power has been planned for 2021, and eight of the country’s 17 reactors are currently due to cease output in 2018.

Germany’s Greens protest re-opening of nuclear waste dump, Deutsche Welle | 14.03.2010, After a ten year moratorium, exploration on the future of the Gorleben nuclear waste dump is to resume. The Green party and environmental leaders are protesting the decision.Environmentalists and member of the Green party responded with sharp criticism to reports that the German Environment Ministry would reopen talks on the future of the Gorleben nuclear waste dump. Continue reading →

March 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation | Leave a comment

State law forbids depleted uranium storage in Utah

More than 5,000 drums from the Savannah River Site are in Utah awaiting disposal, and the DOE has planned on disposing nearly 10,000 more drums, too.

Report: SC depleted uranium likely unfit for Utah, Mar 3, 2010 By BROCK VERGAKIS, AP

SALT LAKE CITY (Map, News) – Nuclear waste that’s been buried in Utah’s west desert for several years likely includes some material that’s not allowed under state law, according to an environmental group’s report released Wednesday. Continue reading →

March 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

What on Earth to do about America’s nuclear wastes piling up?

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

And – why on Earth do they want to make more of them???

Debating the Nuclear Waste Problem, NYTimes.com, By MATTHEW L. WALD, March 9, 2010. With Nevada’s Yucca Mountain facility apparently out of the picture as a nuclear waste repository, government nuclear experts say interim measures might be needed for a very long time.

In a speech Tuesday delivered to about 2,700 industry executives, nuclear regulators and other experts gathered for a nuclear energy conference in Washington, Gregory B. Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that his agency needed to determine just how many centuries such fuel can be safely stored above ground, and that it should come up with a policy that would not require amendment for many years.

Debating the Nuclear Waste Problem – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

March 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes | Leave a comment

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