Nuclear-fuel forum changes few minds (Indian Point Alert)

The Journal News (Ganette) ^ | April 16, 2004 | Roger Witherspoon

[presidio9]

PEEKSKILL — Officials from the Indian Point nuclear power plants met last night with many of their most persistent critics to explain controversial plans to transfer 1,275 tons of highly radioactive fuel from water-filled pools into dry casks.

But at the end of a cordial, two-hour forum at the Crystal Bay restaurant, a few residents were reassured, most positions were unchanged and Entergy Nuclear Northeast is moving ahead with its plans.

"I'm in favor of moving the spent fuel to dry cask storage," said Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, D-Ossining, as she viewed the company's exhibits. "The more fuel we can get out of the pools, the better I'll feel about it."

Galef said she found the forum informative, and that the new plans for storing the highly radioactive spent fuel should make the facility safer.

But Kyle Rabin of the environmental group Riverkeeper was less sanguine about the project.

"It seems that the forum raised many more questions than Entergy was able to answer," Rabin said. "There are new hazards, such as earthquakes, that no one seems to have considered. This system is not as robust as they would have us believe."

The safety of the irradiated fuel in the spent-fuel pools has been an issue in the region since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The uranium fuel used in reactors has a zirconium coating that permits nuclear reactions to occur, but helps prevent the fuel from literally burning up and being dispersed into the atmosphere.

The spent-fuel pools house more radioactive material than the reactors, and are in warehouse-type structures that are considered by some to be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Loss of water in the pools, which are 40 feet deep, would expose the fuel to air, allowing it to heat up and catch fire. This, in turn, could lead to a greater, more dangerous meltdown if the fire were not contained.

The casks that Entergy plans to use are the subject of an investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general because of allegations of flaws in the manufacturing. The casks have been approved for use by the regulatory agency.

"We could have used other systems to store the fuel," said David Smith, senior quality assurance manager for Entergy, "but we have used these before and found them to be excellent."

Entergy is using the casks to empty the spent fuel at the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant it owns near Oswego. "There are other casks which cost less," said Smith, "but our experience with these gives us confidence in their integrity."

The reactors at Indian Point hold about 144.7 tons of uranium fuel arranged in 193 bundles, called fuel assemblies, that are 12 feet long. Smith said Entergy has broken the project down into separate phases, and will begin next year loading 193 bundles into six 180-ton steel-and-concrete casks.

These, he said, will rest on a 3-foot-thick, reinforced concrete pad about the size of a football field. The storage pad will be fenced in and guarded, he said, and the first phase will cost about $30 million.

"It's a wonderful project," Smith said.

More skeptical, however, was Dr. Lynn Sykes, the Higgins professor of Earth and environmental sciences at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Sykes, an earthquake specialist, said the Indian Point plants "were designed to withstand an earthquake about magnitude 5.25, the largest historic earthquake recorded in the New York area in the last 250 years."

But Sykes said there is a 6 percent chance the region will experience a more severe earthquake. "For many people," said Sykes, "that is a small number, and they will feel there is no problem. But for many others, it is too large a number for a critical facility located so close to so many people."

There are no formal hearings scheduled for the proposal. But NRC officials will discuss it during an April 27 meeting at Crystal Bay, when they plan a public review of inspections of the Buchanan plants.

[BlazingArizona]

Ship the spent fuel to Japan, which will be only too happy to recycle it for their oewn energy program.

[Tribune7]

Ship the spent fuel to Japan, which will be only too happy to recycle it for their oewn energy program.

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