Even if we shut down every nuclear plant today we still would have a serious problem.

[Kablooie]

All that nuclear material doesn't just disappear, it has to be disposed of in some way.
This fuel will remain dangerous for our lifetimes and beyond and there's nothing we can do about that.

Most of the spent rods are cooling in pools of water that have to be continuously replenished and monitored, as in Fukushima.
After several years of cooling it is possible to 'dry cask' the spent rods by entombing them in solid containers.
As of today, the U.S. doesn't have an accepted plan for disposing the casks of spent fuel rods let alone active ones.
The casks are currently stored on the plant sites.
There have been proposals for establishing fuel dumps underground but nothing has been approved because the dumps would still be a potential danger to the areas around them.
This is for the spent fuel. I don't know what the issues are for dismantling hot fuel but I'm sure it would be more difficult.

Then there are the financial issues.
Even if the plants are dismantled and become totally moribund, someone has to pay for strict, expensive monitoring and management of the hot rods.
This must continue, without break, for decades at least. Where would that money come from? Who would be responsible?

So there's no way to simply close down the current nuclear plants and be done with it.
There are complex issues to continue using them and complex issues to close them down.

We've got a proverbial 'hot potato' here but even if you try to let go, it will still burn you.

[drm604]

1. Very true.

[flamingdem]

2. The US taxpayer subsidizes them, let's use the money to deal w/waste + shut them down

beginning with the BWR ancient accident waiting to happen GE plants

[lbrtbell]

3. True, but hey--at least it's a start. n/t

[enough]

4. Correct, and this is why I think everyone on all sides of the nuclear power issue

MUST get together over the issue of the spent fuel as the number one priority. This has to be dealt with whether we phase them out or keep them going. We will have to do it, no matter what.

[jwirr]

5. Yes, the reactor rods are one of the problems. That is also what is

causing a lot of the problem in Japan. I am not in favor of building new ones - we need to figure out what to do with the old ones.

[TBF]

6. Well of course - but do we want to make that problem even worse

by continuing to invest in this technology?

[crickets]

9. Exactly. To continue

using nuclear power means to continue producing even more waste, when we have no truly safe way to deal with the huge piles already in existence.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. 100,000 years it needs to be buried

Every day, the world over, large amounts of high-level radioactive waste created by nuclear power plants is placed in interim storages, which are vulnerable to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and to societal changes.

In Finland the world’s first permanent repository is being hewn out of solid rock – a huge system of underground tunnels – that must last 100,000 years as this is how long the waste remains hazardous.

Once the waste has been deposited and the repository is full, the facility is to be sealed off and never opened again. Or so we hope, but can we ensure that?

And how is it possible to warn our descendants of the deadly waste we left behind? How do we prevent them from thinking they have found the pyramids of our time, mystical burial grounds, hidden treasures? Which languages and signs will they understand? And if they understand, will they respect our instructions?

While gigantic monster machines dig deeper and deeper into the dark, experts above ground strive to find solutions to this crucially important radioactive waste issue to secure mankind and all species on planet Earth now and in the near and very distant future.
Captivating, wondrous and extremely frightening, this feature documentary takes viewers on a journey never seen before into the underworld and into the future.

THE PRESS WROTE
"A riveting documentary: as spooky as the early scenes of 2001." 
- Nigel Andrews, Financial Times



"Jaw-dropping! Tackles a subject almost beyond comprehension. One of the most extraordinary factual films to be shown this year. Madsen's film does not merely ask tough questions about the implications of nuclear energy...but about how we, as a race, conceive our own future. This is nothing less than post-human architecture we are talking about. Why isn't every government, every philosopher, every theologian, everywhere in the world discussing Onkalo and its implications? I don't know, but they should see this film."

- Peter Bradshaw, Guardian (UK)



"Intelligent, visually striking! Discusses the practical, political, philosophical and ethical problems entailed with a variety of Scandinavian scientists, administrators and thinkers who all talk slowly, eloquently, and slightly ominously, in excellent English. An eerie, provocative, poetic film."

- Philip French, Observer (UK)



"A quietly philosophical meditation on time and infinity."
- The Independent (UK)



"A hauntingly cool documentary!"
- Jason Solomons, The Mail on Sunday UK

See the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XygsveIwfk&feature=player_embedded

[Marblehead]

8. only one option,

bury the waste deep in bedrock

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

10. OK, remember the Nuclear Freeze Movement?

Folks just get worn down by the lies of propaganda media and have lives of their own to deal with.

I'm all for shutting down ALL NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS TODAY. And at least there will not be More Spent Fuel Rods we will be making. There are already more than we know what to do with, and the anti-nuke folks have been warning the population about it from the beginning.

[BobbyBoring]

11. I always try to look at the worst possible outcome when making

a decision. This is why I've always been anti nucular. There's just no way to deal with the waste. What good is having a source of energy that can kill millions when, not if, something goes wrong?

[csziggy]

12. I posted a thread about this last week - there is no way to just turn them off

Frankly, we are stuck with them. I don't think we should build any more reactors or make any more fuel, but use the reactors already in existence until we run out of fuel. Maybe reprocess the spent rods to use their radiation until that is no longer possible. That could include

This would give us maybe 30-50 years of production from the existing plants - a figure I am purely guessing at and just pulled out of my ass. In that time, we should develop alternative energy sources and figure out a way to safely store the spent fuel.

That time period also extends the profitability of the plants so the companies who own them can contribute more towards their decommissioning and the need to replace that source of energy and to store the radioactive waste.

[cui bono]

13. Spent fuel is NUCLEAR WASTE.

I wish we would stop sanitizing it as the media has been. Don't buy into the corporate wording/framing.

We are talking about NUCLEAR WASTE. Let's call it that and only that.

[crickets]

14. +1

[Kablooie]

15. There is one potential permanent solution to eliminate the waste.

Shoot it into the sun.

Certainly not a simple, cheap or guaranteed safe method of disposal but if successful the danger to humans would be eliminated.

[cui bono]

17. How can you be certain? n/t

[Kablooie]

18. Because the sun has more nuclear energy than the rods and would absorb them all.

[quaker bill]

21. Elements heavier than helium

are not found in stars the size and age of ours. This might not be as good an idea as it sounds. Jupiter might be a better bet, it is certainly cold enough.

[Kablooie]

22. Perhaps. The fuel would fall down through the gases and gravity would keep it there.

[jtrockville]

20. Challenger.

[Tom Rinaldo]

16. Number One Folk Wisdom:

"When you find yourself over your head in a hole, stop digging".

[MadHound]

19. Well, first step is stop producing all that waste.

Second, put the care and storage of all that waste in the hands of the government. Third, since the nuclear industry made a bundle, since it is their mess, they can contribute financially to the cleanup and storage of that waste, in perpetuity.