Yucca redux.

Discussion in 'News from around the damp planet' started by Ojo, Apr 3, 2011.

  1. Ojo

    Ojo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2007
    Messages:
    490
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    About 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the federal government has gambled nearly $10 billion on an arid tract of real estate that hasn't paid off. That project -- to convert Nevada's Yucca Mountain into the nation's long-term repository for nuclear waste -- may not yet be dead, but it is on life support.

    In the wake of this month's nuclear crisis in Japan, however, some in Congress now want to revive the Yucca project. That's partly because the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has refueled the debate over the safety of nuclear waste stored in spent-fuel pools at power plants scattered around this country,

    several states, including Washington and South Carolina, sued the administration over waste storage, contending that the Energy Department could not by itself derail the Yucca plan.

    And a growing number of House Republicans, joined by some Democrats, is trying to find a way to keep the Yucca option alive. Among those die-hards is U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, who told the Beacon that the DOE lacks the legal authority to block Yucca. He vowed that reviving the project was one of his priorities as the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce panel's Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy.

    even if Congress approved and fully funded the Yucca project this year, experts say it would take between seven and 10 years to prepare the storage facility to receive nuclear waste -- not to mention another three or four decades to move all that radioactive material to Nevada.

    In Japan, nuclear officials have spent a reported $20 billion to build a major reprocessing plant at Rokkasho, which has sparked controversy among Japanese environmental and commercial groups because it is located near a seismic fault line at the northeast tip of Honshu.

    After this month's severe earthquake, the Rokkasho plant -- where about 3,000 tons of used nuclear fuel is reportedly being stored -- lost primary power. However, diesel generators provided backup power at Rokkasho until grid power was restored on March 14. The previous day, a Japanese radio station reported that 600 liters of water had leaked from the spent fuel.

    Reflecting the views of many environmental activists, Missourians for Safe Energy chairman Mark Haim contends that "reprocessing has turned out to be a nightmare."


    as far as he is concerned, "the best solution to the nuclear waste problem is to stop making it."

    excerpts
    https://www.stlbeacon.org/issues-po...sing-nuclear-waste-options-spark-hot-debates-
     
  2. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2006
    Messages:
    4,771
    Likes Received:
    10
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Well I guess it is a tad better than them tossing 44 Gal drums of it overboard into the Pacific Ocean, which the US did till when? Was it the late 1980s or was it the 1990s?
     
  3. Ojo

    Ojo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2007
    Messages:
    490
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    We could give it back to Australia.

    there could be a buck or two in it for you.....


    The US currently has about 64,000 tons of deadly radioactive waste accruing at its 104 reactors around the country with no place to store or move it. Australia’s vast desert areas are often suggested as the perfect place- Bob Hawke and others support this enthusiastically on the grounds that we could make a lot of money being the radioactive waste dump of the world.
    excerpt
    https://pnfa.com.au/news101224.htm
     
  4. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2011
    Messages:
    2,984
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    38
    US still dumps garage at sea, drums of it... they might still be in it.

    Ojo, did you know there used to be an artist, tattooed on his neck with a barcode by the US goverment because the man disposes of nuclear waste (safely, he was trained) inside of artwork, and gets his spent radioactiove materials from all over the world.

    If the man still lives, he could be building something huge at this rate of problems in Japan. :(
     
  5. aroideana

    aroideana Junior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2008
    Messages:
    301
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Waste , toxic and nuclear should be stored under the White House and the Pentagon.
     
  6. Ojo

    Ojo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2007
    Messages:
    490
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    no, I didn't...



    Australia is heavily dependent on coal for electricity generation - more so than any other developed country except Denmark and Greece. Around 22% of this is from highly polluting brown coal (or lignite) making Australia the worlds worst polluter per head.

    NewAustralia does not recommend a complete ban on uranium mining and exports to countries meeting appropriate safeguards. We oppose Australia being used to store radioactive waste from other nations - even if the uranium did originally come from here.
    excerpts
    https://www.newaustralia.net/energy.html


    https://australianetworknews.com/stories/201103/3151564.htm?desktop

    ‘The ocean is downhill from everywhere’.
    https://www.prwire.com.au/pr/22468/great-pacific-shame
     
  7. Ojo

    Ojo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2007
    Messages:
    490
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
  8. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2006
    Messages:
    4,771
    Likes Received:
    10
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Some more "fuel for the fire"

    - "Dr. Karl's" reaction to coal power stations
    In his book "Sensational Moments in Science", ABC Press, 2001.
    He has an interesting take on coal power:-

    "In 1982, some 111 (US)nuclear-fired power plants consumed about 540 tonnes of nuclear fuel.
    In the same year, coal-fired power plants released over 800 tonnes of uranium." into the atmosphere.
    "If a single nuclear-fired plant released 8K of uranium into the bio-sphere. there would be . .an enormous outcry."

    He says the nuclear content of coal has not yet reached general public awareness in the same way that the greenhouse effect AIDs, or the ozone hole have.
    There are no nuclear regulations about the disposal of coal ash

    Coal apparently contains a heap of uranium and thorium
    He concludes that you will get three times more radiation from a coal fired power plant than a nuclear fueled power plant! That's if you include the complete nuclear fuel cycle mining, processing operating, disposal(!?)
    If you don't include these your average coal-fired power plant puts out 100 times more radiation than a nuclear-fired plant.
    p103-104

    I wonder how much radioactive junk is floating about Australia's col fired power stations.
    Has anyone ever checked?
     
  9. Ojo

    Ojo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2007
    Messages:
    490
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Djang is coming and is he pissed.

    Although the traditional owners have received royalties of more than A$200m (£129m) from Ranger, Ms Margarula told a parliamentary inquiry in 2005 that mining had "completely upturned our lives, bringing greater access to alcohol and many arguments between Aboriginal people, mainly about money".

    She added: "Uranium mining has also taken our country away from us and destroyed it – billabongs and creeks gone for ever. There are hills of poisonous rock and great holes in the ground with poisonous mud."

    Situated within the boundaries of Kakadu, the Ranger and Jabiluka leases were excluded when the national park was World Heritage-listed. Although the 70 landowners would reap billions in royalties if Jabiluka went into operation, placing them among the ranks of Australia's richest people, they want the site protected for ever. They have held a veto over its development since 2005.

    Ms Margarula told The Age newspaper that the Mirarr's ancient "Dreaming" stories warned that a lethal power named Djang would be unleashed if their lands were disturbed. Her late father, Toby Gangale, had warned the Australian government in the late 1970s, when mining began at Ranger, that Djang "might kill all over the world", she said, adding: "No one listened to him."

    Australia has the world's largest reserves of uranium, with great quantities identified at a mine called Olympic Dam, in South Australia.

    The Mirarr's willingness to forgo untold riches may seem hard to believe, but it has a precedent. Last year, Jeffrey Lee, the traditional owner of a uranium deposit at Koongarra in Kakadu, gave the land to the national park.
    excerpt
    https://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_62802.shtml
     

Share This Page

-->