Nuclear Waste Is National Shame
Nuclear Waste Is National Shame Daily Record Jan 20 2009 T. Bradley MILITARY experts – a field marshal and a couple of generals – stated that the Trident missiles are a total waste of money and are in no sense a deterrent against the present terrorist danger.Despite that, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Dumbarton Labour MSP Jackie Baillie and other so-called officials intend to spend £20billion of taxpayers’ money replacing these nuclear weapons to safeguard us from future attacks.The fact that to cancel these plans would cost millions of jobs – and, perhaps, votes and ultimately some MPs’ positions – has nothing to do with their decisions, of course.I prefer to believe the experts.
Letter: Your View – Nuclear Waste Is National Shame – The Daily Record
Lawmakers act against waste movements
Lawmakers act against waste movements World Nuclear News 15 January 2009Legislation has been filed to stop the disposal of any foreign origin radioactive waste in the USA. It is a reaction to Energy Solutions’ contract to recycle metals from decommissioned power plants in Italy. The move comes after a long battle between Energy Solutions and various local officials and lawmakers unhappy about the recycling contract…………………………
Bart Gordon, Jim Matheson and Lee Terry submitted the legislation, entitled the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act, to Congress yesterday. The bill was also put to the Senate by Lamar Alexander.
If enacted under president-elect Barack Obama, the bill would prohibit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from authorising the entrance of foreign-origin radioactive wastes when a portion of the waste would be disposed of in America, “unless the President deems the importation meets certain national and international goals,” Alexander said…………………………………….In public statements yesterday, Congressman Bart Gordon’s description of Energy Solutions’ plans was notably short on detail: “A company is currently trying to import 20,000 tons of Italian nuclear waste in the USA, where it would be reprocessed in Tennessee and then shipped to Utah for disposal.”
Matheson poised to reintroduce foreign waste ban
Matheson poised to reintroduce foreign waste ban
EnergySolutions » Company ‘fully expected’ return of bill.Judy FahysThe Salt Lake Tribune 01/10/2009 MSTU.S. Rep. Jim Matheson and a bipartisan group of members of Congress are reviving their bill to stop imports of foreign nuclear waste to the United States.Reps. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., have called a news conference for next week with the Utah Democrat to reintroduce the measure, now dubbed the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act of 2009, or the “RID Act.”
The bill would slam the door shut on most foreign-generated radioactive waste seeking disposal in U.S. landfills, including the low-level radioactive waste site owned and operated by Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. in Tooele County.
“Utah is not the place for the world’s radioactive junk,” said Matheson……………………………… Several thousand people objected to the EnergySolutions Italian waste import request during a public comment period.
Matheson poised to reintroduce foreign waste ban – Salt Lake Tribune
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive
Nuclear Waste Disposal System: Great Idea?
Nuclear Waste Disposal System: Great Idea?
INVENTOR SPOT by Cosetta 31 Dec 08 The nuclear waste disposal system known surreptitiously as Patent US 6846967 provides a means for disposing of nuclear waste which includes filling steel containers with nuclear waste and then dropping the containers into the sea in the path of an undersea volcano. The volcano in turn pours lava onto the sea bed with the toxic substances, which the inventor swears are safe to put in the ocean and will not harm the environment The question is: What if he is wrong?…………………The attempt to challenge this important problem is noble and important. Nuclear wastes are fast becoming a growing menace to humanity and the environment and this idea is not the first to address it nor will it be the last. (It is, however, probably the silliest to come along.)The process begins with mixing the nuclear waste with a molten substance (lead). But alas, where does it end? What if the radioactive containers are dumped according to the inventor’s instructions and there’s not quite enough lava to hide the evidence? There’s no way to control that, ut the inventor says that in that event:
“If the lava flow is deemed inadequate, high explosives may be used to increase the lava flow by breaking the volcano walls.”
I don’t know about you, but to my ebbing and flowing sense of paranoia, it seems that one disaster is causing another that has already started and needs no additional help
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
LegalNewsline | Nevada AG makes case against Yucca Mountain project
Nevada AG makes case against Yucca Mountain project
BY CHRIS RIZO CARSON CITY, Nev. (Legal Newsline) 22 Dec 08 -The Nevada attorney general has filed 229 challenges to a proposal to build a nuclear waste depository in the remote Nevada desert.
State Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, who has fought the controversial project at every juncture, said Friday in a petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the Yucca Mountain application is flawed.
Among other things, the attorney general said the project application fails to take into consideration such things as greenhouse gas-induced climate change and the lowering of the topography of Yucca Mountain by erosion.
She also said the U.S. Department of Energy’s application contains an inadequate plan for shipping high-level radioactive waste across the country to the site.
“We needed hundreds of pages just to document the most blatant problems with DOE’s application,” she said. “Although Nevada has known for years about many of these problems, we are approaching a real time of reckoning.”
LegalNewsline | Nevada AG makes case against Yucca Mountain project
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Editorial – Where Does It All Go? – NYTimes.com
Where Does It All Go?
New York Times Editorial December 20, 2008 The Energy Department has recommended expanding the amount of nuclear waste that could be stored in an underground repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada to avoid the need for a second dump. It is a sensible proposal that also is an urgent reminder of how little progress has been made in solving one of the most vexing problems of the nuclear age. Tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel and military waste have been piling up at temporary storage sites around the country while the federal government has struggled, unsuccessfully, to find a long-term solution.
Editorial – Where Does It All Go? – NYTimes.com
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
ReviewJournal.com – Breaking News – Nevada files 229 challenges over nuclear waste project
Nevada files 229 challenges over nuclear waste project
Las Begas Review Journal 19 Dec 08 Nevada reached a milestone today in its 30-year war to defeat the federal Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project by filing 229 challenges to the Department of Energy’s license application for the planned repository 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.“Clearly this is a seminal day for us,” Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said at the Sawyer Building with State Nuclear Projects Agency Director Bob Loux standing at her side. The state’s petition was filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is expected to take at least four years to review the application and contentions.Loux declared the project dead.
“I do believe it’s truly over,” he said after explaining that the project’s pitfalls to entomb 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent fuel in a porous, volcanic rock ridge flanked by earthquake faults can’t be fixed.
He said DOE’s reliance on protecting waste containers from corrosion with a system of relatively short-lived titanium drip shields that haven’t been invented and won’t be installed until 100 years after the waste is buried is a major flaw.
ReviewJournal.com – Breaking News – Nevada files 229 challenges over nuclear waste project
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, urasium, radioactive
Goin’ nukular : Sonoma Valley Sun
Goin’ nukular
– Sonoma Valley Sun December 12, 2008 “……………..The use of nuclear power in Europe and other parts of the world is used as reassurance that this form of energy production is safe, reliable and nonpolluting; this in spite of the toxicity of some of the most dangerous substances in the history of mankind.
Plutonium isotopes (the stuff of nuclear weapons), are a common byproduct of nuclear power reactors, as are many other toxic radioactive isotopes. The half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,000 years, which means that in that amount of time, half of the radioactive plutonium concerned would remain. In another 24,000 years, half of that remaining amount would remain, and so forth. In other words, it takes over 200,000 years for plutonium-239 to become fully non-radioactive. Plutonium-242 has a half-life of 376,000 years.
The toxicity of plutonium is enormous. If inhaled into the body, it remains in the lung, liver, bone and bone marrow tissue, where it generates cancerous mutations. Inhalation of as little as a few milligrams is inevitably fatal. Moreover, plutonium is a fissile material, which means it can be used to create a nuclear fission explosion. In the hands of people intent upon making a weapon, it constitutes a major threat to life, and an explosion used to incite terror would likely ignite dire unforeseen circumstances.
At present, the storage and security of fissile materials like plutonium is unresolved. Most “spent” reactor-grade radioactive materials are stored in deep pools of water at the nuclear power stations themselves. Their movement by rail or truck is so controversial and dangerous that protocols for their safe transport and storage remain undeveloped.
A recent EPA report indicates that any nuclear storage facility must be able to provide a secure and inviolable repository for one million years……………….Producing penetrable depositories of deadly substances therefore constitutes a moral failing of the highest order, and accordingly, “goin’ nukular” should be shelved forever.
Goin’ nukular : Sonoma Valley Sun
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Not a done deal – Las Vegas Sun
Not a done deal
Application for rail line in Nevada to haul nuclear waste is, at the least, premature Las Vegas Sun, Dec 7, 2008An application for a rail line to carry high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain presumes far too much, as Nevada officials made clear at a Thursday hearing.
The application was filed by the Energy Department, which for more than 20 years has been working toward opening a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Even after that amount of time, the department admits that its planned opening of the dump in 2020 is an “extreme stretch.” In our view, that is mainly because of all the legitimate safety issues that Nevada has raised not only with the dump itself, but also with the transportation of the deadly waste………………Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley, both D-Nev., submitted prepared statements blistering the board over safety issues. Nevada has long said that moving high-level nuclear waste long distances by rail is dangerous.
Not a done deal – Las Vegas Sun
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
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
1 This Month
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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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