Posted on 04/12/2008 9:40:57 PM PDT by CedarDave
Southeastern New Mexico, already home to the nation's first deep underground nuclear waste disposal site, might also be a good site for radioactive nuclear reactor waste, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., suggested at a congressional hearing this week.
Domenici's comments come amid increasing concern by the U.S. nuclear industry about the government's failure to find a way to dispose of the highly radioactive waste left behind by nuclear power plants.
Yucca Mountain, the Nevada site proposed as the permanent tomb for the waste, is years behind schedule and will not be ready to accept waste until 2017 at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a mine dug into deep salt beds in the desert near Carlsbad, has been open for nine years, accepting radioactive waste from nuclear weapons manufacturing.
At an April 9 appropriations hearing, Domenici asked Ward Sproat, head of the Yucca Mountain project, whether something like WIPP might work as an alternative to Yucca Mountain.
"You could, if you wanted to, without any question, you could put it in the salt of Carlsbad, most of it?" Domenici asked. "If the law was changed to allow that, yes," Sproat responded.
Domenici quickly added that he was not talking specifically about sending reactor waste to WIPP, but rather ... using deep salt beds as an alternative to Yucca Mountain ....
Under current law, nuclear power plant waste cannot be legally disposed of at WIPP, which is designed primarily for waste with lower levels of radiation.
In the hearing and in an interview Friday, Domenici said reprocessing used reactor fuel is a key step needed to sidestep the problems Yucca Mountain faces.
~~snip~~
"Reprocessing is a $200 billion-plus boondoggle that doesn't work," said Don Hancock, director of the nuclear waste safety project at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
California is even closer, and it would be easier to keep an eye on.
The term "nuclear waste" encompasses more things than just spent fuel. Tools, containers, reactor linings, etc; these things become radioactive when exposed to the primary radiation source.
How about if we just sprinkle nuclear waste along our southern border, with clean areas at authorized crossing points? Most of the land is desert anyway, so it won’t hurt any crops.
The French are recycling it to Russia.
Didn’t the Mescaleros decide to take the radioactive waste?
***The French are recycling it to Russia.***
And why not! Tell the Russians it is sealed Aztec Spanish GOLD. It hasn’t been seen since the Republican Spanish sent it there for safekeeping.
ANWR is just sitting there doing nobody any good.
KOMA! Brings me back to HS days.... that and XROC!
susie
Living in S. FL and being from NM, I have to say that S. FL is worse. There are more yankees here than californians in NM. Plus NM still has more open space.
However, why do these folks insist on ruining their own place and then leaving and ruining someplace else??
susie
Oops..I think that’s really XROK.
susie
I know one thing real well about Carlsbad. At the foot of the microwave tower in the center of town is McDonald’s. :>} I was visiting family there about 14 years ago. My brother in law helped design the waste site. The Caverns were awesome. A real great place to escape the heat also.
Why not just store it in Detroit or Philly.
But, of course, those are not the high level wastes that need the sort of super secure containment that Yucca Mt represents. Reprocessing is the best solution to the waste problem. Right now volume is our biggest issue and thanks to our over-broad interpretation of proliferation treaties we are all but ignoring this solution.
All the time here in Florida you hear transplants say “well that’s not how we do it back home”. or “How come this or that is so much better in N.Y.” or from whatever place they came from?
I understand that N.Y. is fast paced. You have to get it going to make enough to live there. But when you go somewhere else you should slow it down a bit. And unfortunately there isn’t a
stage deli on every corner in Florida.
All the transplants here in Florida have made this little N.Y. and it has lost its southern flavor.
You watch as all the Californians come rushing in and do the same. They do so to get away from the crowds and high cost of living due to taxes and insurance and high rents.
Oh yes, I remember my Mom complaining about the Californians moving in back in the 90s. Even then it was a problem. Of course, in Roswell where my Dad still lives it’s not Californians moving in....
susie
Yes, I know. I’m talking about dumping the stuff left over after the second burn run. Guess I should have been more clear about it. What I was trying to express was the fact that we don’t have to store radioactive waste indefinitely, problematic at best, that there is a way to recycle solid rad waste safely back into the Earth’s crust where it originated.
I used to work as an Environmental Qualifications Coordinator in the Nuclear Power Industry. My father is a licensed nuclear engineer and my family has been associated with the issues involving atoms for peace for about a half-century. For me, it is vitally important that the public be educated of the solutions existing contra long-term storage of dangerous radioactive materials.
Strange that you should mention delis. I’m from southern California originally and there was an Italian-style deli in the town we lived in, San Clemente. When we moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1969 we discovered kosher delis in that city. When I joined the U.S.Navy in 1980 I was sent to school at the Presidio of Monterrey, California, and there made the unhappy discovery - no kosher delis anywhere and only one Italian deli on the whole penninsula! And many of the people living there were in the entertainment industry and had moved there from New York. You would have expected to find at least one kosher deli, but no. Lot’s of bagel shops but like typical Californians they had tinkered with the product. Cinnamon and raisin bagels don’t have the same panache.
Great thing when you walk in to a real deli. The smell overpowers you. Your knees go weak and you just can taste the good stuff. And I’m not talking about a grocery store deli.
Uranium Exploration Near Grand Canyon ( Enviromentalists are hoping to block any....do so )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.