U.S. storage sites overfilled with spent nuclear fuel

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42219616/ns/business-us_business/

71,862 tons, with more created every year, and no permanent disposal solution

The nuclear crisis in Japan has laid bare an ever-growing problem for the United States — the enormous amounts of still-hot radioactive waste accumulating at commercial nuclear reactors in more than 30 states.

The U.S. has 71,862 tons of the waste, according to state-by-state numbers obtained by The Associated Press. But the nation has no place to permanently store the material, which stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years.

Plans to store nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain have been abandoned, but even if a facility had been built there, America already has more waste than it could have handled.

More at the link --

[wtmusic]

1. Plans were being made to double Yucca's size when it was nixed.

IMO people are finally realizing why this was important.

[MadHound]

10. Except for the fact that Yucca Mt. lies at the intersection of three fault zones,

Floods regularly, and water from the bottom of Yucca Mt. reaches Las Vegas groundwater in two weeks.

Yucca Mt. is and was a piss poor choice to permanently store spent fuel.

[madokie]

12. Seems that so many don't want to admit that fact

Something tells me that the next puke pResident will reverse course and immediately start using Yucca mountain though and that's why no real effort is being made to find a safe place, if indeed there is a safe place to store the nasty shit.

[wtmusic]

15. Floods regularly, my ass.

One of the driest climes in the country.

Waiting for support, not expecting any.

onedit: when were those fault zones last active? IIRC, it was something in the neighborhood of ten million years ago. But I wouldn't expect someone who approves of above-ground nuclear waste storage to come armed with perspective. :eyes:

[Buzz Clik]

2. As big an environmental freak as I am, this is my biggest annoyance.

I was approached by someone from my favorite local environmental group to sign a petition to block the transport of nuclear waste across the state of Indiana. I told him why that was a horrible idea and refused to sign.

Damn.

[enough]

3. Most of it sitting OUTSIDE of containment buidling.

snip from the article>

Three-quarters of the waste sits in water-filled cooling pools like those at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in Japan, outside the thick concrete-and-steel barriers meant to guard against a radioactive release from a nuclear reactor.

snip>




This system has been insane from the beginning.

[RKP5637]

4. It's like flushing the toilet to end up in the kitchen in garbage bags. It's been a problem for

decades with no real solution.

[jtrockville]

5. I'd like to know why the government is responsible for storage.

Why are we, as taxpayers, responsible for storage of nuclear waste?
Why isn't the nuclear industry able to deal with its own waste?

[wtmusic]

6. About 3/4 is paid for by a surcharge on your utility bill

but nuclear also powers a lot of streetlights and public services that everyone uses.

Personally I want the government in charge of storage, or we get situations like they had in Italy where the Mob was dumping it out at sea.

[jtrockville]

7. 3/4 of $9 billion is a lot of surcharge...

especially for a project that was killed. I'm ok with the Feds having the final say-so, but that's quite an enormous subsidy. I suspect that $9 billion is just the tip of the iceberg.

[bananas]

9. It's nowhere near enough - the nuclear industry always vastly under-estimates the costs.

[wtmusic]

13. $24B has already accumulated in a savings account

and nuclear utilities are in the process of suing the NRC to be able to stop collecting this surcharge.

What's going to happen to the $24B is anyone's guess.

[Statistical]

14. Not all the waste came from power companies.

The DOD, and DOE created large amounts of waste testing, and building nuclear weapons which would also be stored at Yucca or some other facility. The DOD also has nuclear waste from reactors used in subs and carriers. Universities and researchers also generate waste but that is a relatively small amount.

Nuclear utilities are charged a fee per kWh of electricity they generate in exchange for the safe storage of spent fuel. They were told to store fuel onsite and DOE would transport it by 1980. The government has collected the fee for 38 years without providing a storage facility. $24 billion collected for far and roughly $1 billion a year in future fees.

At a minimum we should at least store the spent fuel in an above ground interim spent fuel storage facility (designed to last at least a century). The facility would contain only dry casked spent fuel. Would be well guarded and run by and owned by the department of energy. The DOE was actually mandated to build one. The deadline for having the facility built, and ready to accept spent fuel was 1998.

[bananas]

8. Reagan. nt

[malaise]

11. Never mind the West will find some developing country

full of brown, black or yellow people and dump it there - just you watch and see. :puke: