if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById(‘articleViewerGroup’).style.width = requestedWidth + “px”; document.getElementById(‘articleViewerGroup’).style.margin = “0px 0px 10px 10px”; } Most of the nation has nowhere to send its low-level nuclear waste. It can’t stop producing this waste. It’s necessary for diagnosing and treating cancer and other diseases, and for research. But because there is no-where to send the waste, it piles up in hospitals, other medical facilities and research centers.
It’s an illustration of our nation’s inability to deal realistically with nuclear issues…………………………… The problem isn’t South Carolina’s fault. States were supposed to build their own low-level-nuclear-waste facilities or form compacts to handle the waste. In 2002, Florida joined three other Southern states suing North Carolina for its failure to build a low-level waste facility there. The matter is still in litigation.
The same process has been repeated all over the nation. States have been unable to build low-level-waste sites
The Canadian Press: Safety research on nuke burial plan lags by decades
Safety research on nuke burial plan lags by decades – THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA 8 Dec 08 — As plans progress for a radioactive-waste site buried deep in Ontario limestone, the federal nuclear watchdog says the related safety research is full of holes.Ontario Power Generation wants a licence by 2012 to bury low-to intermediate-level radioactive waste at its Bruce nuclear plant near Kincardine, Ont…………………..environmental critics and geoscientific experts are asking how the federal regulator can credibly assess crucial safety issues – especially when the commission itself says it lacks up-to-date, independent research………………….
The Citizens Environmental Alliance last June gave OPG the dubious 2008 Weenie Award for environmental degradation. It blasted the giant utility for planning the repository so close to Lake Huron – a precious freshwater resource.
“Once a facility like this is built it is more than likely going to be the permanent site” for nuclear waste from across Canada, alliance research and policy director Derek Coronado said at the time.
“Any contamination of the Great Lakes and we’re all in serious trouble.”
Environmental activists want more focus on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
The Canadian Press: Safety research on nuke burial plan lags by decades
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted | Greenpeace UK
Nuclear renaissance interrupted
Rex WeylerWaiting for waste solutions
Nuclear waste remains the untamed demon of nuclear power. After 40 years of research, not a single kilogram of high-level spent-fuel waste has been stored in a permanent repository. Deadly, radioactive plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years. Some fuel has been reprocessed, itself a polluting industry, but three-quarters of the waste ever produced remains in temporary storage in 50 countries.According to Dr Mohamed El Baradei, Director of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), most countries have no geologically appropriate disposal sites, and many lack the expertise or will to deal with the waste that remains vulnerable to leaks and attack.
Niagara Gazette – Cleanup at western NY nuke site debated
Cleanup at western NY nuke site debated
NIAGARA GAZETTE Associated PressBy CAROLYN THOMPSON 3 Dec 08 BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) _ Federal energy officials wrestling with the decades-old question of what to do with the West Valley nuclear site are recommending a phased-in approach that would remove contaminated buildings and soil soon, while deferring for up to 30 years the larger question of whether all waste should be removed………………..allows time to further study whether the 3,300-acre site should be completely decontaminated or if buried waste should be closed in and the site managed for generations to come……
……….it was already being challenged Tuesday by environmentalists, scientists and residents who said complete decontamination of the site 30 miles south of Buffalo is the only safe alternative given its erosion-prone geology.The biggest concern is that radioactive waste will seep into nearby creeks, make its way into Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and contaminate drinking water supplies.
Niagara Gazette – Cleanup at western NY nuke site debated
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Washington suing U.S. over slow cleanup at Hanford – Breaking News From Oregon & Portland – Oregonlive.com
Washington suing U.S. over slow cleanup at Hanfordby Scott Learn, Oregon News November 25, 2008, Washington state has decided to sue the federal government over its slow cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, arguing that the window is closing to safely remove Hanford’s 53 million gallons of radioactive waste from storage tanks before they leak.Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire announced today that the state would sue the Department of Energy, breaking an agreement between the state, the federal agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed in 1989.The waste stored in 177 tanks at the former weapons production site poses “dire consequences” for the Columbia River, the state’s lawsuit notice said, with at least 67 single-wall tanks already leaking……………………the cost has ballooned from $4.3 billion to $12.2 billion, and the startup date has been pushed from 2011 to 2019, with treatment of wastes due to be completed by 2047. But Washington state says it could take until 2079 to finish the job.
Removal of waste from 149 leak-prone single-wall tanks has also been delayed, the state says. Leaking tanks have already released at least 1 million gallons of waste, some of which has seeped into the river. And the spilled radioactive waste will persist in the environment for tens of thousands of years.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium
donga.com[English donga]
‘Radioactive Waste Being Stored in Seoul, Daejeon’
THE DONG-A ILBO NOVEMBER 04, 2008 09:27 The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has kept low and intermediate levels of radioactive waste in Seoul and Daejeon, a report by the think tank said yesterday.
In the report submitted to ruling Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Jung-hoon, the institute has stored 1,163 drums (a drum equals 200 liters) of the waste in a building of the Korea Electric Power Corp.’s central training complex in northern Seoul.
The waste was generated from 2001, when the institute dismantled its two nuclear facilities inside the training complex.
Also, a temporary building of the institute in Daejeon has kept 11,074 drums of radioactive waste since 1985.
Low and intermediate levels of radioactive wastes include nuclear garments, gloves and overshoes used by workers at nuclear power plants or reactors, and destroyed parts and filters used in nuclear facilities. Such waste contains a lower amount of radioactivity, but is still dangerous………………….In a stark contrast to general belief, the institute has kept radioactive waste in general or temporary buildings not designed to prevent radioactive contamination.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Under the radar: Canada’s, Mexico’s radioactive waste comes into Utah – Salt Lake Tribune
Under the radar: Canada’s, Mexico’s radioactive waste comes into Utah State not told of feds’ decision By Judy FahysThe Salt Lake Tribune 28 oct 08 Federal regulators gave their blessing to low-level radioactive waste from Canada and Mexico that is now buried in Utah.
But Utah never got the memo. Nor did the regional radioactive waste oversight organization Utah belongs to.
That foreign waste could be imported into Utah without the knowledge of state and regional officials might seem hard to believe in such a highly regulated business as radioactive waste.
Under the radar: Canada’s, Mexico’s radioactive waste comes into Utah – Salt Lake Tribune
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Low-level nuclear waste, high-level problems – Carlsbad Current-Argus
Low-level nuclear waste, high-level problems
Article Launched: 10/21/2008 09:07:59 PM MDT
var requestedWidth = 0;
Low-level nuclear waste, high-level problems – Carlsbad Current-Argus
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
No Nukes Is Good Nukes | pressconnects.com | Press & Sun-Bulletin
No Nukes Is Good Nukes
PressConnects.com Donald Allen • October 20, 2008 “…………………….nuclear power generation has one very big drawback; nuclear waste. The “used up” fuel from reactors is still very radioactive and will be for about a hundred thousand years. The big problem obviously is what to do with it. In the early days we dumped used fuel from our atomic submarines in the deep part of the ocean. We don’t know exactly how it might have effected the marine environment, but we pretty soon figured out that dumping wasn’t a real good idea. From that day to this, all we have done with most of the used (but still radioactive) fuel it store it “temporarily” some where and moved it around from one temporary storage place to another……………………….The true bottom line is; nowhere is the right place! No one wants it near them because they think something that is radioactive for tens of thousands of years can’t be kept secure and safe virtually forever. It might leak, explode, be shot into the air by earth movement, get stolen or even forgotten until someday it comes back and bites us from behind. Some say the current crop of waste can be further reprocessed into safer forms and less volume of radioactive material. They even claim a use for the reprocessed material may eventually be found. But the recycling of nuclear waste process is expensive and has all of the dangers incumbent with still having some radioactive waste material at the end albeit of a lesser volume. The nuclear powered power plant is not a very attractive option, even if we think things are getting desperate, energywise!…………………….Let’s ask our putative leaders if they are willing to cast off the economic control of corporate contributions from the petrochemical industry, the nuclear industry, the financial industry that manipulates the markets, etc. Let’s ask our leaders to truly represent us and work for our general welfare as the constitution of the U.S. requires. With our support real leaders can not fail. We have the vote, which no amount of private money can buy from us if don’t let it, and that is the real key to power now and for the future.
No Nukes Is Good Nukes | pressconnects.com | Press & Sun-Bulletin
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Tons of nuclear waste piling up at power plants | MiamiHerald.com
Tons of nuclear waste piling up at power plants
Miami Herald 21 Oct 08 The unrelenting nuclear headache in the United States is how to dispose of radioactive waste. For 25 years, the federal government has considered putting it at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. That has led to bitter opposition from environmentalists, those close to the proposed dump and even some nuclear experts……………….Until this point, all nuclear plants have had to keep their waste on site, piling up at the rate of 20 tons per reactor per year. ”Basically, nothing has moved,” says Mitchell Singer of the Nuclear Research Institute.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Central Chronicle–Opinion
123 Agreement – of nuke wastes and other risks
Central Chronicle Oct 21, 2008“……………………………During the protracted debate on the Deal whether in India or abroad nuclear power was touted as a clean source of energy though the West does not seem to reckon it as such any longer. In the US nuclear power plants have not been built for decades. France , too, has reduced the contribution of nuclear energy in its total power output. Yet, curiously, never for once was a mention made of the hazardous radioactive wastes that the nuclear power reactors generate…………………Curiously, this was never touched upon even as the US and others are up against the unsolved problem of permanent interment and isolation of nuclear wastes……………Proliferation generally breeds all round compromise in quality and that may well happen with the proliferating nuclear power industry. Besides, numerousness of atomic power complexes will act like magnates for the disaffected and the hostile elements in the neighbouring countries. If infiltration and exfiltration continue with such ease as at present, the country will never be short of prowling bombers.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Al Jazeera English – Africa – ‘Toxic waste’ behind Somali piracy
‘Toxic waste’ behind Somali piracy
ALJAZEERA.NET October 10, 2008 By Najad Abdullahi Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8bn ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste…………………………..While money is the primary objective of the hijackings, claims of the continued environmental destruction off Somalia’s coast have been largely ignored by the regions’s maritime authorities.
Dumping allegations
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia confirmed to Al Jazeera the world body has “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline.
“I must stress however, that no government has endorsed this act, and that private companies and individuals acting alone are responsible,” he said
Allegations of the dumping of toxic waste, as well as illegal fishing, have circulated since the early 1990s.
But evidence of such practices literally appeared on the beaches of northern Somalia when the tsunami of 2004 hit the country.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reported the tsunami had washed up rusting containers of toxic waste on the shores of Puntland.
Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesman, told Al Jazeera that when the barrels were smashed open by the force of the waves, the containers exposed a “frightening activity” that has been going on for more than decade
“Somalia has been used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste starting in the early 1990s, and continuing through the civil war there,” he said.
“European companies found it to be very cheap to get rid of the waste, costing as little as $2.50 a tonne, where waste disposal costs in Europe are something like $1000 a tonne.
“And the waste is many different kinds. There is uranium radioactive waste. …………………………Nuttall also said that since the containers came ashore, hundreds of residents have fallen ill, suffering from mouth and abdominal bleeding, skin infections and other ailments………………………and there are hospital wastes, chemical wastes – you name it.”
Al Jazeera English – Africa – ‘Toxic waste’ behind Somali piracy
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Nuclear power’s catch: waste – Wire – News – Opinions – Belleville News Democrat
Nuclear power’s catch: waste
bnd.com Philadelphia Inquirer McClatchy-Tribune News Service 7 Oct 08
America’s realization that it must kick its expensive foreign-oil habit has energized the previously moribund nuclear power industry, which is proudly selling itself as the cheaper, cleaner alternative……………………….there has been little progress on solving the overarching problem of where to put radioactive waste – the lethal leftovers that can remain dangerous to health and life for centuries.Six years ago, Congress approved a plan to transport waste from nuclear plants to Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. But it was only four months ago that the Department of Energy submitted a waste repository application to the NRC. If approved, the first waste shipment isn’t expected to be sent to Yucca before 2020.
Meanwhile, the 64,000 tons of spent fuel now being stored on-site at nuclear power plants in 33 states will continue to grow.
But America’s nuclear-waste problem is much more pervasive than that. It involves not just what the nation’s existing power plants produce, but also the low-level radioactive material found in hospitals, universities and in other industries.
Tags: nuuclear, nuclearwaste, nuclear costs
ReviewJournal.com – Opinion – EDITORIAL: The ‘science’ of Yucca Mountain
The ‘science’ of Yucca Mountain’ Guaranteeing’ the safety of nuclear waste
reviewjournal.com 5 Oct 08″…………………………..To pretend that we can foresee how the landscape around us will appear in a million years — or even 100,000 years, which far exceeds the length of recorded human history — is hubris on a biblical scale. To pretend that we can build structures whose architectural integrity will withstand such changes is even more absurd. Ice ages with their glaciers can come in go in such a time period, as can volcanoes. Compared to such time frames, the age of the pyramids of Egypt is the blink of an eye.
Yet, because the courts have ruled that guaranteeing the safety of radioactive waste storage at Yucca Mountain for 10,000 years is not sufficient (because wastes buried there could remain deadly for a million years), the federal Environmental Protection Agency has now required that those building the dump certify its safety for a million years. And Department of Energy spokesman Allen Benson blithely replied, this week, “We believe we can meet the standard.”
The motivations for the waste dump at Yucca Mountain are not scientific, but economic and political. Congress and the nuclear industry believe they will have less trouble building new nuclear power plants if they can say they’ve “solved” the problem of where to put their spent (but still highly radioactive) fuel. And so “science” is bent and shaped to bolster these political and economic needs.
ReviewJournal.com – Opinion – EDITORIAL: The ‘science’ of Yucca Mountain
Tags: Nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium
Low-level nuclear waste is piling up at hospitals | National | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
Low-level nuclear waste is piling up at hospitals
South Carolina law that took effect in July leaves 36 states nowhere to stash the stuffB Houston Chronicle by SEANNA ADCOX Associated Press 4 Oct 08BARNWELL, S.C. — Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs.
For years, truckloads of low-level nuclear waste from most of the U.S. were taken to a rural South Carolina landfill. There, items such as the rice-size radioactive seeds for treating cancer and pencil-thin nuclear tubes used in industrial gauges were sealed in concrete and buried.
But a South Carolina law that took effect July 1 ended nearly all disposal of radioactive material at the landfill, leaving 36 states with no place to throw out some of the stuff. So labs, universities, hospitals and manufacturers are storing more and more of it on their own property……………………….n 2003, the federal Government Accountability Office reported there wasn’t even a record of how many radioactive sources existed nationwide
Low-level nuclear waste is piling up at hospitals | National | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
Tags: Nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium
Space junk, get your space junk here | NEWS.com.au
Space junk, get your space junk here
news.com.au By Kim Powell October 01, 2008 – “……………………………We’ve made a big mess down here, so it’s no surprise that we’ve dirtied space too.
Thousands of probes and satellites have been sent up into space since 1957, and each mission leaves debris behind.
The BBC reports this “blanket of junk” orbiting the Earth at 40,233km/h consists of jettisoned spacecraft parts, abandoned satellites, paint chips, nuclear reactor cores and nuts and bolts. NASA frequently replaces windows damaged by flying paint chips.
The Centre for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies estimates there are around 70,000 objects 2cm in size orbiting 850-1000 km above the Earth. NASA believes much of this is frozen pieces of nuclear reactor coolant leaking from disused Russian satellites.
Space junk, get your space junk here | NEWS.com.au
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- April 2026 (338)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
- May 2025 (261)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 