Nevada seeks to nix govt nuclear waste storage plan

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 12/22/06 | Tom Doggett

[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.

[Richard-SIA]

I already have!

Other countries get to reprocess, we don't.
Another poster linked Thorium reactor research.
I mentioned studies in irradiating the waste, which are not being funded.
I believe England uses a Glassification process to trap the waste in a very dilute form that cannot leach into the soil or water too early.

Yucca is not the only answer, just the only one the NRC/GE wants to discuss.

[kinoxi]

Name a vague alternative if you can.

[Richard-SIA]

It should not be "Stored" at all, it should be reprocessed for reuse, or rendered safe in a responsible manner.

There are alternatives to "storage", but it seems no one wants to discuss them.

[Richard-SIA]

How many more to satisfy you?

I have already pointed to several!

[taxed2death]

In all seriousness though...that damned treaty is the crux of the whole problem. We should be allowed to do what other countries do and refine it / use it.

[kinoxi]

I agree.

[esoxmagnum]

what does "yitbos" mean? I can't find a definition of it.

[backhoe]

The "problem" with how to dispose of nuclear waste is an engineering problem- and it has already been solved.

Recycle it.

Europe has done this for decades.-- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468321/posts?page=50#50
Hattip: Mike (former Navy Nuclear Engineer)

[samtheman]

This is the most thoroughly studied nuclear storage proposal in the history of the human race. It's not a safety hazard. The real hazard is not having nuclear power. Nevada has to give on this one.

[ReignOfError]

Nevada gets no rent, but lotsa jobs from this about $10 billion project. Yep, working all over Yucca mountain without even tinfoil hats for protection.

In its heyday, Mercury -- the fake "town" created to house test site workers -- was the largest settlement in Nye County. Local governments didn't get any direct tax revenues from Mercury, but those folks went to movie theaters and department stores, which paid taxes and hired people.

For that matter, even the protesters who went there to chain themselves to the gates had to eat something and sleep somewhere.

When I was out there in 1998, part of the NTS was being adapted as a hazmat training facility. I'm sure that since 9/11 it's found a lot of new uses for law enforcement and first responder training, becasue we have no shortage of training missions best done far from prying eyes and potential harm.

[Pugsy]

Harry doesn'y own the whole state! I don't want it trucked through my town and that's the plan. Nevada is my home, You can have it in your backyard. We moved here because it IS desert. Keep your insane cities.

[Major_Risktaker]

Yucca Mountain or Mecca? Both get my vote.

[caveat emptor]

You might have a look at Thorium reactors. Not as slick as the technology you mention, but looks better than current nuke technology - and they burn Plutonium.

If interested you might start with my comment #22, and follow the link there.

[caveat emptor]

Dilithium should fuel your sarcasm for the next half dozen threads at least.

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

[Richard-SIA]

"the most thoroughly studied nuclear storage proposal"

No, the most contrived and faulty.

Since the Yucca site does not meet the original standards, they just changed the standards to suit.
Other methods are not given consideration, the NRC will never admit to their boondoggle unless forced to do so by congress.

[ASOC]

Nice thought, but right now no synchrotron is powerful enough to kick start the reactor. It does have the potential to 'burn up' plutonium found in existing waste.

Atomic energy (yes, I am old school) is clean and cheap only because Uncle Sam's willing to the worlds trash bin for lethally radioactive waste.

That said, the French (yup, those guys) safely store large amounts of vitrified high level waste above ground. But even the French admit to looking for a "geological sequestration"solution.

So, here we are. What are we (the US) going to do about high level nuke waste - waste that can kill after just a few minutes exposure - we have on hand now? The WIPP project is as good as dead, tho it has started to accept TRU waste.

My biggest concern, from living for years near the dump site outside of Beatty NV, is the sheer negligence and carelessness in transport of the waste. For this, I will have to agree with all the naysayers - we need a much better way to transport, even if it is by rail of heavily armored trains with military escort.

[caveat emptor]

Nice thought, but right now no synchrotron is powerful enough to kick start the reactor

I'm not knowledgable enough to speak directly to this, but I am interested, will look into it, and will get back to you. Thanks for the comments.

[ReignOfError]

Harry doesn'y own the whole state! I don't want it trucked through my town and that's the plan. Nevada is my home, You can have it in your backyard. We moved here because it IS desert. Keep your insane cities.

NIMBYism at its finest. I know that eminent domain isn't popular, and I'm with the rest of y'all that using it to benefit private developers as in the Kelo case is a crime, but eminent domain exists for a reason. No one wants to live near a landfill, a superhighway, a sewage treatment plant, a train traick, an industrial port, or all kinds of other noisy and smelly things. I'm under the approach path for the world's busiest airport. Ted Kennedyis gonna have to deal with windmills in his favorite sailing spots It's all stuff that no one wants but everyone needs, and someone has to take the hit.

[caveat emptor]

Nice thought, but right now no synchrotron is powerful enough to kick start the reactor

This struck me as odd. Somewhere I read that what was needed is an accelerator producing 1000 MeV, which I translated into 1 BeV. Having worked as a grunt entering photographic data from a hydrogen bubble chamber hooked up to an accelerator, a Bevatron, into a computer at the Lawrence Rad Lab in Berkeley in late 60s, I figured it was just a question of getting one hooked up to a reactor. And I thought I had read that some small scale experimental ones were in operation. I guess not, from what I've been able to turn up in the past few days.

Completely beside the point for you, either way, as you're faced with having the waste dumped in your back yard. My attitude has been that conventional nuke reactors are losers, because nobody is willing to take the stuff.

You seem to think safe transport and storage isn't necessarily that big a problem. And that the Yucca Mountain plan is just a bad one.

Nukes are the way to go in the long term it seems to me, failing some completely new technology, and Thorium, from what I had heard of it seemed a good choice to be developed for a variety of reasons besides the waste disposal issue.

Scroll down at this link for some comments about Thorium not requiring an accelerator driven system.

[ASOC]

"You seem to think safe transport and storage isn't necessarily that big a problem. And that the Yucca Mountain plan is just a bad one."

Safe transport IS A BIG problem, I support the naysayers - a secure transportation system really will require a military component.

The Yucca MT plan is at least sane, and safe above ground (temp) storage is possible, given the French example.

I would rather much, if not all the waste, be in one or two locations (Yucca Mt and WIPP) so at least it can be safeguarded.

And for the record, I live in Alaska. I thought Spokane would be a good place to live until there was a brush fire at Hansford and radioactive smoke blew into town, so I moved the family to Alaska.

And also for the record, NUKE POWER (as used today) IS INSANE. Imagine if Jesus (to pick a familiar personage) ran a BWR reactor in His time.

The waste would still be LETHAL to an unprotected human exposed for just a few minutes. The waste would continue to be lethal for more the next 10 centuries.

That said, we have a real mess to clean up. I won't go into the mess the whole Nweaons program left behind and the expense that will entail. But clean it up we must. If a breeder reactor will help reduce long life, high level waste -super. If a Thorium reactor will reduce the existing waster, even better.

Yucca is a first step and at least we are *doing something positive* to control the waste and limit long term exposure. The second step is to quit being the world's nuke garbage man. The third - explore real alternate technology for power generation, be it wave power, hydro, solar or something so new we haven't ever thought of it yet.

Beats waiting for the Vulcans to show up and start cleaning up our messes.

Merry Christmas.