Posted on 12/22/2006 10:38:31 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The state of Nevada on Friday asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject the U.S. government's plan to store thousands of tons of nuclear waste temporarily above ground at a mountain located about 90 miles from Las Vegas.
The Energy Department is set to file an application with the NRC in mid 2008 for a license to operate the Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear storage repository in Nevada, which would hold radioactive waste underground from more than 100 nuclear power plants, along with the tons of leftovers from the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
The permanent storage site is years behind schedule and until it is ready, the department wants to place the nuclear waste temporarily above ground.
Nevada has vehemently opposed Yucca Mountain becoming the country's nuclear waste dump, but has been overruled by the U.S. Congress. Blocking above ground interim storage at the site would delay the eventual arrival of any radioactive waste put permanently inside Yucca Mountain.
Nevada says it is worried the radioactive waste could linger at the allegedly temporary surface site for decades, pointing out that the 21,000 tons of waste that might be stored above ground is seven times the amount of waste the permanent underground storage facility would be able to receive each year if it is finally opened.
In a petition to the NRC, Nevada said federal law specifically prohibits large interim storage in the state as long as it is the location for the country's permanent nuclear waste repository.
"Planned storage of seven times the annual emplacement rate at Yucca Mountain is nothing more than an unlawful interim storage site in embarrassingly thin disguise," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
Nevada asked the NRC to restrict the time any radioactive waste could be stored above ground to no more than 12 months.
"I can see the need for some limited storage capacity at a site to support operations, and that is why, in this petition, we are proposing that the commission's licensing rule limit surface storage at the site to a time period of no more than one year," Loux said.
Yucca Mountain originally was to open in 1998 but has been delayed until at least 2017 due to scientific foul-ups and political stonewalling.
Nuclear waste sits at 131 temporary locations in 39 states, including the 103 nuclear reactors where it is produced.
There are currently about 54,000 metric tons of waste from civilian nuclear plants and 13,300 metric tons of U.S. military waste. Every year, the civilian waste stockpile grows by about 2,000 metric tons.
No one but Uncle Sam owns any land around there. It's wedged between the Nevada (nuclear) Test Site and the Nellis Air Force Range.
LEGION!
Reprocessing, recycling, irradiation, many more.
Some actually use it to produce energy, some render it harmless in years - NOT centuries.
The Nuke dump is DUMB, obsolete before it is built.
Okay, so where do YOU live, we'll send it there, thanks for the invite.
Actually one of the few things Pinky has not been able to screw up.
No doubt he would really like to, but knows it would be political suicide.
I'm not quite up to date with your terminology. Could you expand upon your statements (LEGION!) or supply a link?
Fact check time!
Nevada does not get the study money, Gov. Org Agencies and private contractors do.
It COST Nevada millions attempting to fend off having other states waste shoved down out throats!
Nope, the Fed's have made it clear that they claim ownership* of the land, and the state and citizens will get ZIP, ZOT, NADA, NOTHING, beyond the tax's on contractors building the boondoggle.
*Unconstitutionally, per the "Equal Footing Clause" of the U.S. Constitution.
There are SEVERAL alternatives for dealing with the Nuclear "Waste".
Other countries deal with it like adults, only the U.S. wants to be Cro-Magnon and just throw it in a hole to be forgotten.
If it's really "Waste" why do the Fed. and private companies involved refuse to grant Nevada title to it?
The answer is that they do not want Nevada universities or companies to figure out a way to exploit it that leaves them out of the profits.
So they want to dump it on us, but retain title so they can reclaim it when some one proves out a way to make a few Billion $$$$$$$$ off of it.
When did Uncle Sam pay for the land?
Oh, right, they simply unconstitutionally made relinquishing it to the Fed. a condition of statehood.
read the "Equal Footing Clause" of the U.S. Constitution, the Fed. does not legally own the land.
There are many alternatives, it's after mid-night and I should go to bed.
Science articles appear regularly stating exciting results of experiments in reusing, recycling, and mutating nuclear "waste".
None get significant funding, the NRC has decided on a hole, and they intend to get a hole, facts or reality are not to stand in their way, they will not be deterred from filling that damn hole.
Billions have been spent by the NRC on their glorified hole in the ground, maybe a couple of million on alternatives.
Google might help, try "Glassification", Transmutation, several types of reactors, reprocessing.......
I've got a general background on the topic at hand and asked you for a viable alternative. Your personal bias is apparent. Would you care to explain why?
Heck, we had above ground nuclear testing in Nevada for 20+ years. We nuked the dang place for two plus decades, and nobody noticed!
Nevada has tried for about 25 years or more to indicate to nuclear waste producers that they can neutralize the stuff on site, as is being done in France and other venues, precluding the need to truck it cross-country to a "storage" site (which at this point seems like a Neanderthal "solution"). Our Silver State entreaties haven't, apparently, had much effect.
Dilithium should fuel your sarcasm for the next half dozen threads at least.
Um, not to put too fine a point on it, but yeah, folks noticed.
On the "West Side" of Los Angeles, California. Bring it on!
Seriously, what is Nevada but a bunch of desert ... then again without the water so is California.
I think the way around this is to offer a billion extra dollars to any state that would take it. Then add a billion more a month until someone gives in.
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