The U.S. Spent Nuclear Fuel Policy: Road to Nowhere

[wtmusic]

"The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) two-paragraph March 3 press release describing its motion to withdraw its pending license application for Yucca Mountain was an indecent obituary for the disposal site’s brief 23-year life and $8 billion cost. The relatively short history of nuclear power in the U.S. reminds us that the Yucca Mountain project may have been doomed from the start. A number of permanent nuclear waste storage site projects have been cancelled over the past 45 years, although Yucca Mountain was exponentially the most expensive failure. History also tells us that political considerations will always trump technology when it comes to siting a nuclear waste repository.

The DOE’s terse statement was expected given the funding death spiral for the project over the past few years and a new president who promised to close Yucca Mountain: 'The U.S. Department of Energy today filed a motion with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw the license application for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain with prejudice.'

This decision again leaves the power generation industry without a long-term spent nuclear fuel (SNF) disposal site, despite the federal government’s legal obligation to provide one. The pivotal difference between Yucca Mountain and previously cancelled projects: This time nuclear utilities collected billions of dollars from ratepayers to pay for the project."

http://www.powermag.com/issues/cover_stories/The-U-S-Spent-Nuclear-Fuel-Policy-Road-to-Nowhere_2651.html

[kristopher]

1. US Nuclear Energy Policy - The Road to Trouble