Nuke Plants Use Dry Casks for Spent Fuel

[NVMojo]

March 28, 2005, 6:51 PM EST


WASHINGTON -- About 40 percent of the nation's nuclear power plants have begun moving spent fuel out of cooling pools and into massive dry casks, embracing a storage approach that a National Academy of Sciences panel said offers safety advantages.

The nation's 64 active nuclear power plants, which together house 103 reactors, all now store nuclear waste in pools of water after it is removed from reactors. Eventually, the spent fuel is supposed to be shipped to a national nuclear waste dump planned for Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

As Yucca Mountain has been delayed, utilities are increasingly moving some of the waste from pools to huge metal or metal-and-concrete casks. That method is now employed at about 25 active U.S. nuclear power plants, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade group.

NEI spokesman Steve Kerekes said Monday that both storage methods are safe -- contrary to the findings of the National Academy of Sciences panel, which told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the vulnerability of spent nuclear fuel pools to terrorist attacks needs urgent new study.

more...

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-nuclear-waste,0,2028709.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[BeFree]

1. Man, I want one of those...

How much will they pay me to house one of those babies? I could retire, eh? Hell, we all could!

Some folks say there is no danger: "Whatchu worried 'bout, man? That stuff's safer than coal."

Pretty soon that shit'll be all over the place anyway, pay me to store it here, I'll put it right out by my redneck neighbor's fence. Use it fer target practice.

[NVMojo]

2. there is more here than meets the eye, I tell ya!!

Bush barely won Nevada and he approved Yucca Mtn. in the last term. Now we got enough clout to keep it out after billions upon billions has been spent on that site? Gee ...

[BeFree]

3. Yeah, no kidding

There is somthing up with the whole process. Maybe Yucca is really meant to be a liberal detention facility?

Methinks they oughtta drill straight down at every facility and dump the casks in the deepest hole they can drill. Then shut the damn things down.

Gee, do ya think the Vegas mob has anything to do with Yucca? Maybe it will become the world's largest bomb shelter, cause it sure don't look like they will ever store the nuke stuff there.

[NVMojo]

4. weird thing, tonight in our local rag, there was a letter to the editor

that sad Bushidiot gave a report on how a "bacteria" was eating through the casks that are already in Yucca ...I wish I could post it but I'd have to type the whole dang thing ...the writer criticized the idiot on how he gave the report to an activist in Pahrump when he visited, instead of to a reporter.

[MadHound]

5. What's up with the whole process

Is that groundwater dye studies have found that if the waste gets free of its containers(a high probability over time), it can leak down through cracks at Yucca, and be in the Las Vegas water supply within a couple of weeks.

[Gin]

6. I thought I read somewhere that a way to treat this stuff was found...

that would dilute the uranium.

Was I dreaming?

I think it had something to do with water. Anyone else recall this?

[MadHound]

7. Dilution using water would be ineffective

There is an experimental process out there that will destroy the waste completely, supposedly, that uses high power lasers. However, the effectiveness is still poor, the process is still in the experimental stages, and it is unknown whether or not it will live up to the claims.

Right now, rad waste is with us for the forseeable future, and that is the whole problem with nuclear power. By burying it or storing it, we are merely passing the problem along to future generations, who may or may not have the capability to deal with it. The only responsible way to dispose of the waste is to pack it all into a rocket and fire it into the sun. But this is not guaranteed to work, and all it would take is one atmospheric accident ala Columbia or Challenger and we would have a world wide catastrophe on our hands.

What we should do instead is go to other, less polluting forms of energy. Wind power has enormous potential here. A 1991 DOE survey of wind resources showed that we have enough harvetable wind energy in North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas to fulfill our national electrical needs through the year 2030. Not that I'm proposing filling up these states wall to wall with windmills, but it does show the vast untapped energy potential that wind has in this country.

We need to wean ourselves from non-renewable energy sources, especially those that are heavy polluters, such as nuclear, coal and other fossil fuels. Otherwise we're going to crash and burn when Peak Oil really takes hold, and will wind up living in our own shit, so to speak.

[Javaman]

8. Years ago in the LA Times they had this process featured in their Science

Section about some sort of centrifugal system, used to separate nuclear waste. At the time it was very expensive but also very effective. I never heard about it again.

At the same time I read about the Grand Jury inquiry about Rocky Flats and the storage of nuclear material in these concrete containers. After a period of time, they began to leak. Needless to say, the report by the grand jury stated that the concrete containers were very poor vessels for the material. Again, I never heard anything more about it.