Senate Passes Energy and Water Bill

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

The Senate on Wednesday passed a $34.3 billion energy spending bill that backs up President Barack Obama's promise to close the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada.

The bill, passed by a 85-9 vote, also covers hundreds of water projects being undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Yucca Mountain project 90 miles from Las Vegas was designed to hold 77,000 tons of waste, but has been strongly opposed by the Nevada delegation, which had been outgunned in its efforts to kill it.

The move fulfills a campaign promise by Obama to close Yucca Mountain, which was 25 years and $13.5 billion in the making. It would, however, leave the country without a long-term solution for storing highly radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/29/us/politics/AP-US-Congress-Spending.html

[4lbs]

1. The French, a world leader in number of nuclear power plants, have found a way to safely deal

with nuclear waste. Study how they did it.

[RantinRavin]

2. They bury it in rock formations

PARIS (AFX) - Industry Minister Francois Loos said the government has decided to propose long-term burial of France's stock of highly-radioactive nuclear waste, following a 15 year review of the options for dealing with spent fuel from the country's network of nuclear reactors.

The burying of nuclear waste in rock formations several hundred meters below the earth's surface, known as 'deep geological disposal', would provide France with a secure solution for waste that will remain toxic for hundreds of thousands of years, Loos said at a press conference.

'Wastes have been produced over the past 40 years; they are there, and it's up to us to manage them,' Loos said, adding that new taxes will be levied on nuclear plant operates, mainly Electricite de France, to fund additional research on radioactive waste disposal.

[bluestateguy]

3. NV's 5 electoral votes locked down

Well done.

Now dump the waste in Oklahoma.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Plasma

http://memebox.com/futureblogger/show/252-radical-ultra-hot-plasma-reactor-converts-toxic-and-radioactive-waste-to-clean-energy

Radical Ultra-Hot Plasma Reactor Converts Toxic and Radioactive Waste to Clean Energy
March 25 2008 / by AlFin
Category: Environment Year: 2008 Rating: 12 Hot

By Al Fin

Garbage and hazardous waste are becoming valuable energy feedstocks, thanks to researchers from Ukraine, Russia, and Israel. Even low level radioactive wastes, medical wastes, and toxic wastes can be converted to useful products and energy, using a new high temperature plasma reactor.

There is no need for the world to drown in a sea of garbage and toxic waste. We do not need to pollute the oceans, groundwater, or air. Being smart about toxic waste is just another way of using our most valuable resource-our brains!

More at these links, links live at above blog.

* Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage on Ice. Now What?
* Major breakthough in catalyst for cleaner 'green' petrochemical materials
* Who's The Greenest Electronics Company of Them All?
* Thermoelectric materials based on 'nano cages' capture waste heat
* Synthetic life possible within decade, scientists say
* Radical New Plasma Reactor Makes Energy From Toxic Waste!
* Researchers Claim “Green” Catalysts Can Clean Up Toxic Pollutants
* Radioactive waste recycling no longer a pain in the ash
* New Material Shows Great Promise For Nuclear Waste Clean-Up
* Heavy Metal-Eating "Superworms"

[breadandwine]

5. That plama waste method is pretty amazing, a major improvement.

More at the company's site:

http://www.eer-pgm.com/en-us/home/homepage/


How the technology works video:

http://www.eer-pgm.com/en-us/company/eer_movie/

Reading over the site it seems that the basic idea is that in a sealed environment that does not contaminate the air the waste flows downward through a tube where at each lower level it gets hotter. Some of the byproducts of the waste are used as fuel to increase heat further but there is much less pollution because only very benign substances are allowed out of the process. At the bottom a low-oxygen plasma treats the remaining non-organic material which, without oxygen produces far fewer pollutants. The resulting material gets ultra hot and turns into a glass-like substance that is dropped into water where it shatters into a gravel that is very benign environmentally and can be used in construction.

The process can also be used and some radioactive waste, the site says, though obviously disposal of that is not going to be in construction material.

The site says the resulting material is much smaller in volume than the (far more toxic) ash and gas produced by incineration. Some energy produced in the process is also sold into the local grid while the rest is used to run the process.

This is still not Utopia but it sounds like a major advance.

Once again the Israelis are at the cutting edge, in this case teaming up with Russian scientists, something you don't see too much of with American institutions.

Ultimately my hope is that a process will be developed that heats waste entirely into a gaseous state and then separates out all the components into individual elements. But I assume that's way in the future.