With No Long-Term Solution, Nuclear Pallbearers Bury Waste in America's Backyard

[Javaman]

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2009/03/nuclear

This summer, dozens of workers at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant in central California will carry out an internment. They'll carefully begin moving 133 tons of spent fuel from temporary cooling ponds into a nuclear necropolis of eight cement-and-steel tombs in a field adjacent to the plant. If all goes according to plan, they won't have to worry about the radioactive detritus for another 100 years.

If all goes according to plan.

The Diablo Canyon storage casks, each weighing about 180 tons and costing more than $1 million each, were authorized by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in its ongoing struggle to deal with the 50,000 metric tons of toxic nuclear waste that's already been produced by the nation's nuclear plants. Structures like these, measuring about 18 feet high, will soon dot the landscape at almost all the nation's more than 104 active and shuttered nuclear reactors — near neighborhoods, streams and oceans in 38 states.

According to the Department of Energy, there is enough spent nuclear waste in the United States to fill a football-field-sized hole 15 feet deep. From a plethora of proposals, scientists and politicians have selected on-site storage as the safest solution for the buildup. But it's a temporary solution. The waste will be fatal to humans and other animals for tens of thousands of years — yet the storage tombs are expected to last only a hundred years.

[havocmom]

1. Yet, there are STILL people promoting the idea that more such plants be built

It boggles the mind. So much sun, wind, tidal energy..... So little real solution to the nuclear waste problem, yet proponents (or are they investors) still want more of the same.

[phantom power]

5. What would you consider to be a "real solution?"

[ashling]

2. why does this not make me feel any safer

scientists and politicians have selected on-site storage as the safest

Would these be the same plethora of scientist and politicians (political scientist?) who were so surprised when (fill in your favorite terrorist attack, nuclear or economic meltdown)? :shrug:

:puke:

[Javaman]

3. This falls into the NIMBY argument, people want nuke power but

don't want the waste sitting near their homes.

[wtmusic]

8. Most would be amazed at how close they live to nuke waste right now

About 120 sites dotted across the country, many close to groundwater aquifers and metro areas.

[wtmusic]

4. A wonderful argument for Yucca Mountain. nt

[havocmom]

6. Unless you live in the West that so many nuclear proponents see as a trash heap

Sorry, NIMBY applies to the vast western wilderness (and populated areas)

[wtmusic]

7. As a matter of safety

having all the waste in one location which is (relatively, anyway) geologically stable and dry makes sense. Easier to maintain, easier to guard.

Yucca Mountain would be a boon to NV at a time when Vegas is tanking, and not just with the constuction and maintenance of the site. IMO all Nevadans should be compensated generously with a disposal tax on top of the nation's power bill.

[abqmufc]

9. YUCCA NOT A SOLUTION BUT A BIGGER PROBLEM (THAT MANY ARE NOT AWARE OF)

Yucca Mountain is not an option. First, it is my backyard. And like all I do follow the NIMBY attitude. If Yucca was open 90% of all nuclear waste shipments would come through Albuquerque, NM on rail and truck - Albuquerque is my home. This area of the country has suffered enough from our nuclear legacy as tribes were forced to mine uranium. Southwestern tribes in NM and AZ have some of the richest seams of uranium in the world. Today the Navajo Nation still has at least 50 uranium tailings piles on their reservation which the U.S. EPA does not deem dangerous enough to remove (as its only an Indian Reservation).

This goes beyond NIMBY as to why Yucca is a bad idea.

1) Yucca Mountain is a dormant volcano! So putting radioactive waste with a half-life of 125,000 years just into a dormant volcano is a no brainer to me. Sure we won't be around to see the impact...but I assume humans will live that long, or at least some life form.

2) Yucca Mountain sits on a fault line. In addition to the geologic reality of volcano spewing out all our waste via an eruption, any earthquake could disrupt this facility.

3) When Yucca was selected (illegally), it was in the desert, not near any major city. Today Las Vegas is one of the nation's largest cities, Yucca Mountain is a stone's throw from Las Vegas.

4) No nuclear facility will be free of waste. Any nuclear power plant must hold its waste till it is cool and safe enough to transport. This can take up to 25 years. So any and all nuclear facilities will still have nuclear waste stored on-site.

5) Yucca mountain is a sacred mountain to at least 5 American Indian tribes. This mountain was stolen by the government from the tribes. This mountain is vital to tribes traditional practices.

I could go on and on as Yucca Mountain and the nuclear legacy as it impact American Indian tribes was my graduate work emphasis.