Project to move 15 million tons of radioactive waste begins
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/05/02/business/z6edbd99928ffa519882575a6006f16a6.txt
Project to move 15 million tons of radioactive waste begins KSLTV 4 May 09 “…………………..They’re finally moving 16 million tons of radioactive dirt away from the town of Moab.
The radioactive dirt is going into big boxes, the boxes onto rail cars: a project that will cost about $1 billion. “You cannot put a price on the image and reputation of the state,” said Gov. Jon Huntsman. “The fact that 50 years ago, during the height of the Cold War, the decision was to make this dump 3 miles out of town, nobody would have thought twice about it. And today, it seems absolutely ludicrous that ever would have been done.”
Moab has been trying to get rid of it almost ever since the uranium mill that produced it shut down 25 years ago. “It’s sitting in the flood plain of the Colorado River and draining into the river,” explained Bill Hedden, executive director of Grand County Trust.
Questions with nuclear plant
Questions with nuclear plant
Mountain Home News Diana Hooley April 29, 2009 – “The promoters for the proposed nuclear power plant have used the promise of jobs and money to strike an emotional chord in a down economy.But who are these people really and can they deliver the goods or are they just salesmen preying on people’s needs?……………………..Idaho and Elmore County land is being auctioned off potentially to out of state utility companies for the energy needs of out of state localities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles area.
Why would Elmore County ever be willing to give up control over its land and water to this group of developers? For the promise of jobs — not the assurance — just the promise………………………
With all the excitement about jobs and money, forgotten is the possibility that though the economy will fluctuate and the job market will get better, the nuclear waste will be stored on site in perpetuity.
This toxic waste will be something the children of Elmore County citizens, and their children, will have to live with for a long time.
Storing waste on that piece of property is a terrible risk. The soil and rock are porous and the ground slopes directly to the river. Any leak of toxic materials will run off.
1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?
1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?
Sydney Indymedia April 29th, 2009 By Diet Simon, adapting Cecile Lecomte’s report A 25-car train half a kilometre long has just carried 1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium through the most densely populated region of Germany – destination unknown, presumably France.
The train left Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant at Gronau (52° 12′, 160 km south of Hamburg) in the night from 27 to 28 April.Usually trains from the German-Dutch-British-owned enrichment plant close to the city of Münster and the Dutch border have taken depleted uranium to Rotterdam for shipment to Russia, where it’s been dumped in the open air.
The Urenco company is extremely secretive about the transports. This time journalists were told by federal police that the train headed for Duisburg and on to France.That would have taken the dangerous cargo through the densely populated Ruhr and Rhineland areas – if the police information is correct…………….
…….The train from Gronau was held up by two hours because a female French activist who lives in Germany, 27-year-old Cécile Lecomte, had abseiled over the tracks from a road overpass. She and other climbers have made such a name for themselves in disrupting nuclear transports that police now always have climbing specialists along on the trains to take the protesters down……….
………….”The aim is to reveal the secret atomic transports from the Gronau uranium enrichment plant and to draw people’s attention to the policy of Urenco,” she writes. ………………………..“Radioactivity knows no borders. What kind of an end to atomic power is it if Gronau is expanded, thereby supporting the construction of new nuclear plants – such as the EPR in Flamanville, France – by supplying the product to power stations all over the globe.
“The waste is carted right across Europe in secret transports. That is no solution to the nuclear waste problem. On the contrary, the population is exposed to ever more dangers, the environment is polluted ever more…..”………………….’
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun
Mother Nature Network 21 April 09 “……………………..This 586-square foot relic is the Hanford site—a retired plutonium production complex that the Department of Energy (DOE) considers to be “the world’s largest environmental cleanup project.” Some 525 million gallons of radioactive waste were generated by Hanford between 1944 and 1988, according to a Government Accountability Office report, and at least 56 million gallons of the stuff remains on site in leaky tanks. Already a million gallons of it has seeped into the ground and contaminated the Columbia River. Meanwhile, the DOE is stalling on the clean up and trying to wiggle out of its 2018 commitment for completion. “They’re trying to avoid the option of having to build storage tanks, which are very expensive, but the cost of a catastrophic tank failure is incalculable,” says Robert Alvarez, senior scholar for the Institute for Policy Studies…………………………………Disturbingly, Hanford isn’t a lone case. America’s fear of Communism, its doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, and its subsequent nuclear weapons buildup over a 45-year span left behind a nationwide toxic waste legacy: 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated groundwater, 40 million cubic meters of tainted soil and debris, more than 2,000 tons of radioactive spent nuclear fuel, more than 160,000 cubic meters of radioactive and hazardous waste, and more than 100 million gallons of liquid, high-level radioactive waste, according to Max S. Power, author of America’s Nuclear Wastelands: Politics, Accountability, and Cleanup.
“The nuclear arms race left us with 16 major and 100 minor sites all around the country that need to be cleaned up,” says Power.“Our ‘nuclear wastelands’ are a multi-generational legacy.” Sites across the US include Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York, to name a few.
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun | MNN – Mother Nature Network
Resolve nuclear waste site first
Resolve nuclear waste site first post-Bulletin Jay Youmans 20 April 09
It makes no sense to lift the legal moratorium or build new nuclear power plants in Minnesota until the nuclear industry finds a solution for the radioactive waste produced at nuclear plants.
It makes no sense to pass the costs of electrical production and use on to future generations by leaving them nuclear waste that has to be stored and is dangerous for longer than recorded human history.
How can we justify passing this cost and legacy onto our children?
……………………..Yucca is located in an active earthquake zone with more than 30 known faults in the area (a 5.6 earthquake in 1992 did $100 million damage to the site). Since 1976, there have been 621 seismic events of magnitude greater than 2.5 within a 50-mile radius of Yucca Mountain. Today there is more civilian and military nuclear waste than the Yucca depository’s 70,000 metric ton capacity.
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?By Lisa Mascaro Las Vegas Sun April 21, 2009 ·
WASHINGTON — Is a salt formation in New Mexico the new Yucca Mountain?
A trade industry publication reports today that discussions are underway to promote an existing facility in New Mexico as an alternative to storing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel in the desert north of Las Vegas..
The Obama administration has promised to “scale back” funds for the Yucca Mountain project, and the president has vowed it will not open as a waste dump. A report last week indicated the fiscal 2010 funding cut would be severe……………………………
“Nuclear industry officials and policymakers are quietly mounting support for constructing a permanent nuclear waste repository inside a large New Mexico salt formation already used for permanent storage of low-level transuranic waste,” Energy Washington Week reports.
The publication reports former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a longtime leader in nuclear issues, recently mentioned the idea……………………Transporting the nation’s civilian nuclear waste to WIPP has its own legislative obstacles. Current law now restricts what can be dumped there and would need to be altered.
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico? – Politics: The Early Line – Las Vegas Sun
Sellafield: the most hazardous place in Europe
Sellafield: the most hazardous place in Europe
The Guardian 21 April 09 Last week the government announced plans for a new generation of nuclear plants. But Britain is still dealing with the legacy of its first atomic installation at Sellafield – a toxic waste dump in one of the most contaminated buildings in Europe. As a multi-billion-pound clean-up is planned, can we avoid making the same mistakes again?
………………………… “It is the most hazardous industrial building in western Europe,” according to George Beveridge, Sellafield’s deputy managing director.
Nor is it hard to understand why the building possesses such a fearsome reputation. Piles of old nuclear reactor parts and decaying fuel rods, much of them of unknown provenance and age, line the murky, radioactive waters of the cooling pond in the centre of B30. Down there, pieces of contaminated metal have dissolved into sludge that emits heavy and potentially lethal doses of radiation.
It is an unsettling place, though B30 is certainly not unique. There is Building B38 next door, for example. “That’s the second most hazardous industrial building in Europe,” said Beveridge. Here highly radioactive cladding from reactor fuel rods is stored, also under water. And again, engineers have only a vague idea what else has been dumped in its cooling pond and left to disintegrate for the past few decades.
………………….. This, then, is the dark heart of Sellafield, a place where engineers and scientists are only now confronting the legacy of Britain’s postwar atomic aspirations and the toxic wasteland that has been created on the Cumbrian coast. Engineers estimate that it could cost the nation up to £50bn to clean this up over the next 100 years………
……… the condition of edifices such as B30 and B38 – and all the other “legacy” structures built at Sellafield decades ago – suggest Britain might end up paying a heavy price for this new commitment to nuclear energy. After all, if it is going to cost that much to decommission early reactors, green groups and opponents of nuclear energy are asking, what might we end up paying for a second clean-up if we go ahead with new nuclear plants?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/19/sellafield-nuclear-plant-cumbria-hazards
Italian Nuclear Waste to be Dumped in Utah
Italian Nuclear Waste to be Dumped in Utah AllGov News by Noel Brinkerhoff April 17, 2009 A uranium isotope is a uranium isotope, regardless of its country of origin. But for two Democratic congressmen, there’s a problem with low-level nuclear waste from Italy being dumped in Utah………………………….
Since the NRC won’t help, Matheson and Gordon have decided to sponsor a bill that would ban the importation of low-level radioactive waste unless the nuclear material originated in the U.S. or the waste was imported for a strategic national purpose. The two congressmen have been joined by Utah’s Republican governor,. Jon Huntsman, who is opposed to the waste coming to his state.Huntsman can’t get legislation passed in his own state banning the importation of nuclear waste, thanks to the numerous political donations that EnergySolutions has spread around among state lawmakers, and its army of lobbyists. In fact, one of the company’s former lobbyists is Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT), whose district includes the dump site.
Nuclear-waste dumping site also poisonous
Nuclear-waste dumping site also poisonous
BERLIN, April 16 (UPI) — A leaking nuclear-waste storage site in Germany is also contaminated with several toxic substances.
The problematic site in the Asse mountain range in northern Germany has been abused for several years by companies eager to get rid of toxic substances, including mercury, lead alloy and arsenic, German news magazine Stern reports………………………
Asse was meant to be a place for temporary storage and research but was instead used by companies for careless dumping of waste never intended to see the light of day again.
The cleanup of Asse is estimated to cost at least $2.5 billion.
NRC says it can’t block foreign nuke waste
Tennessee: NRC says it can’t block foreign nuke waste ” .
The Chattanooga Times Free Press 15 April 09 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it doesn’t have the authority to keep foreign radioactive waste from being imported into the United States just because the material is from another country.
A Tennessee congressman says that’s all the more reason to pass his bill giving the NRC that power. Without it, Rep. Bart Gordon said Tuesday, 20,000 tons of Italian nuclear waste could be brought to Kingston, Tenn., for processing. About 1,600 tons of material left after processing would be shipped to Utah for disposal.
.“Our country is the only country in the world disposing of other country’s radioactive trash,” Rep. Gordon, D-Murfreesboro, said in a news release. “The very agency responsible for regulating this waste has stated in no uncertain terms that they cannot prevent other countries from dumping their waste in our country. The bill I authored would change this, effective immediately.”…………
………..The NRC says that as long as the material can be imported safely and someone is willing to accept it, the commission can’t keep the waste out……..
…………..Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has said he doesn’t want the waste coming to Utah, but EnergySolutions is challenging in federal court the state’s ability to use an interstate compact to keep the waste out.
Chattanooga Times Free Press | Tennessee: NRC says it can’t block foreign nuke waste
Oyster Creek’s waste stockpile just gets larger
Oyster Creek’s waste stockpile just gets larger pressof AtlanticCity.com By BEN LEACH 9 April 09 , Oyster Creek isn’t going anywhere, and neither is a stockpile of accumulated nuclear waste………………………………….While exact figures are not available for the amount at Oyster Creek, there are 2,180 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel in the state, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 2008-2009 Information Digest………………………. the spent fuel at most nuclear plants across the country goes into storage on the site of the nuclear plant. Oyster Creek stores all of its spent fuel on-site……………………. At Oyster Creek, spent fuel rods must be kept in the on-site storage pool for at least 10 years, according to a Lacey Township ordinance. From there, the rods are typically moved to the “dry” method, which involves placing them in a concrete cask.
The structures – 10 feet wide, 15 feet tall and 20 feet long – are made from reinforced concrete. According to David Benson, a spokesman for Oyster Creek, there are 20 modules at the plant, 16 of which are full.
Each chamber weighs about 600 pounds, with almost two-thirds of that weight a result of the spent fuel itself.
Those modules are protected by security around the clock,…………………..
Paul Gunter, director of reactor oversight for Beyond Nuclear Inc., a national nuclear watchdog, said the storage casks remain in plain sight despite security measures.
“Some kind of passing vehicle could just stop and shoot any of these casks from Route 9,” Gunter said.
The protection of nuclear waste is more than just a local issue.
Somali Piracy Exposes Weakness in UN Law of the Sea
Somali Piracy Exposes Weakness in UN Law of the Sea VA News.com By Alisha RyuNairobi 09 April 2009 The explosion of piracy off the coast of Somalia in recent years has exposed a weakness in the United Nations maritime law that makes high seas piracy illegal throughout the world…….
………European countries sent to Somalia thousands of drums of toxic waste, including nuclear waste, to be dumped at sea.…..
………..“Lots of people who are pirates now are not from coastal villages. They are not fishermen. They are from inside, former militiamen and they are motivated entirely by money. The fact that illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste still goes on in Somalia is excellent PR [public relations] for the pirates. It means that when they capture a ship and they talk to a news organization and say, ‘We are just defending Somali waters,’ and so on, that plays very well in the communities they need to get support from along the coast,” he said.
VOA News – Somali Piracy Exposes Weakness in UN Law of the Sea
Nuclear waste hearing ends in opposition to Taitung site
Nuclear waste hearing ends in opposition to Taitung site Taiwan News 9 April 09
A public hearing discussing the possibility of storing low-grade nuclear waste in a Taitung County village ended on a note of strong opposition yesterday after two protesters had been taken away by police.After years of controversy and protests, the government decided to select Nantien Village in the county’s Tajen Township as one of the possible disposal sites for low-radioactive waste from its three existing nuclear power stations…………………………..Participants in yesterday’s hearing voiced strong opposition to the Tajen site. The area was geologically unstable, making it unsuitable to provide a permanent home for the low-radioactive materials, geologist Chiang Kuo-chang said.The chairman of the county’s tourism association, Yang Wen-ta, said the issue was larger than just Tajen and concerned not only environmentalists and the local aboriginal population, but the whole of Taitung County.
Before the hearing got under way, an organic farmer carrying a banner with an anti-nuclear slogan was prevented entrance to the meeting and shown into a police vehicle. An environmental activist who came outside to ask about the situation was also forced into the car and taken to a police station, reports said. Both said they were kept at the precinct office for two hours.
Power originally stored its waste on Orchid Island, a remote island off southeast Taiwan mainly inhabited by aboriginals.
Nuclear waste hearing ends in opposition to Taitung site – Taiwan News Online
Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed – Las Vegas Sun
YUCCA MOUNTAIN:
Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed
LAS VEGAS SUN 5 April 09 “……………………………………….The biggest of the alleged holes in the Energy Department’s Yucca license application, according to Nevada, is that the project’s safety plans rely on installing 11,000 titanium drip shields 100 years from now, after the waste has been placed inside the mountain. Installing the drip shields would require technology that hasn’t been invented, the state says, and the application does not consider the effects if the drip shields cannot be installed.Nevada, several counties and others would like to bring forward hundreds of other concerns about the Energy Department’s science. They say it fails to take into account expected changes in precipitation tied to global warming, fails to use the right calculations for volcanic activity, fails to properly anticipate how fast waste canisters will corrode and fails to substantiate that the department could block air traffic over the mountain to avoid air crashes.
These groups also argue that environmental impact statements didn’t sufficiently consider the effect of transporting waste to the site.In all, there were 320 contentions from 14 groups.The Energy Department says none of these critiques should be heard because they all violate technical requirements of the regulations.
Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed – Las Vegas Sun
Nuclear-waste contract opposed
Nuclear-waste contract opposed Fairplay Daily News 02 Apr 2009
RUSSIAN environmental groups are urging rejection for a contract renewal to ship radioactive waste through St Petersburg’s port to a storage facility at Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland.Greenpeace told Fairplay that it had urged Russia’s government-owned nuclear fuel trading company Techsnabexport (Tenex) not to renew its contract to accept uranium hexafluoride …
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Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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