The US nuclear waste issue – solved
Nuclear energy is a must. Disposal is within our reach.
These two Biased Pro Nuclear HACKS should be ashamed of making such a misleading and dishonest statement. Talk about Nuclear Propaganda of the most unsavory kind! It sadly gets worse, as these two suggest Force Hosting of Commercial Nuclear Projects including WASTE DISPOSAL. Forcing nuclear genocide on a community for the convenience of the Nuclear Industry is not disposal within reach sirs.David S. Kosson
|  |
from the November 12, 2008 edition
Nashville, Tenn. - President-elect Barack Obama supports nuclear power to increase US energy independence and fight global warming (Actually, he said we needed to look at, and be able to SAFELY store the waste...forced HOSTING is out of the question.) – but only if a path to safe nuclear waste disposal is opened. Yucca mountain is out of the question, and communities such as mine are being cheated when the NRC wants to leave waste insitu on site at Reactor Sites such as Indian Point...tell me, how much do you and President Obama feel my wife's breast cancer is worth? Reactors are nuclear abortion machines...how many stillborn birth are acceptable in your mind for the convenience of nuclear energy? Fortunately, there is a two-step plan that can open that path and lead to an effective waste solution within eight years. And it embraces citizen consent. (ALARM BELLS FOLKS...NEI comes in, spreads some money around, spoon feeds a CHOSEN COMMUNITY their Pro Nuclear Propaganda and Pablum....sign right here. Here is a clue...every reactor community agree to host our current reactors for a period of FORTY YEARS. Now through NRC rubber stamping of License Renewal Applications, we are being RAPED, forced to host unsafe reactors for 20 more years in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance, in the name of NATIONAL SECURITY. )
In 1987, Congress cut off comparative site evaluations and closed all discussion of permanent nuclear waste locations except Yucca Mountain, in Nevada. It taxed nuclear utilities to pay for it, racking up $26 billion to date. NOT EXACTLY...actually, it is US THE CITIZENS through a monthly surcharge that have put together than $26 Billion. In fact, if a Class Action Attorney is interested, I have a group of citizens that want to SUE to get that money back since DOE has broken its contract with us.
The Energy Department did what Congress required: It studied Yucca and recently submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve site construction. FALSIFIED REPORTS AND STUDIES, and your teams still had to admit that YUCCA MOUNTAIN WILL NOT WORK FOR LONG TERM STORAGE.
However, few informed observers believe that the facility can be completed without the cooperation of Nevada, which is dead set against it. As they well should be. Be honest...you folks cannot even guarantee safe storage for 20 years...look at Dry Cask storage, and the supposed SAFE Spent Fuel Pools where the waste is at currently ARE ALL LEAKING. Critics perceive the site as too risky and as a threat to tourism. They would be right, but since you and yours depend on the NUCLEAR INDUSTRY for your meal tickets, you tout the PARTY LINE. Let you live within three miles of a reactor (Indian Point) that is leaking tritium, strontium 90 and other radioactive contaminants into the environment, let your wife get breast cancer, or give birth to a stillborn child, and then TELL ME HOW SAFE NUCLEAR IS. On top of that, Nevadans seem to feel that the federal government is unfairly pushing the facility on the state. Decades of complex administrative delays and judicial battles loom. AGAIN, they would be right. DOE wanted to form compacts for the long term storage of LLRW...or so they said. Their real plan was to get two, if they were luck three LLRW sites up and running under the Compact bait and switch, and then after the fact turn them into NATIONAL storage facilities...how do I know this? I found Secretary HAzel O'Leary's Senate Sub Committee Testimony that was used to kill the Midwest Compact back in the early nineties.
So, half a century after we started generating nuclear power, used nuclear fuel continues to accumulate at more than 100 temporary storage facilities near nuclear power plants. It's a daily reminder of the unfulfilled federal promise to own and begin moving the material by 1998. CLASS ACTION ATTORNEYS...take note...1998! TWENTY SIX BILLION...Pro Bono? Email Me strikeforcenews@aol.com
Much of the problem stems from an anachronistic policy enacted in 1982. The policy essentially stipulated that used fuel should be disposed of in a geologic repository as soon as one becomes available. But, if used fuel is allowed to sit in safe storage for 90 years, much of the heat and radioactivity decays away. This reduces the size, complexity, and cost of underground disposal. It also buys time. During the cool-down period, used fuel could be transformed from waste into a major source of energy if we can satisfy the tough engineering, cost, and security challenges involved in reprocessing it. FOLKS, DO NOT BE FOOLED.
1. This is the SAME BAIT AND SWITCH they did with Depleted Uranium from the Gaseous Diffusion plants. With the stroke of a pen they turned HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF BARRELS of CANCER CAUSING Depleted Uranium WASTE into potential future use resources because some sick twisted scientist figured out you could create Armor Piercing Munitions with it...what he failed to tell you, what the government failed to tell you was we have enough of this Depleted Uranium to last us about 100,000 years...unless we all kill ourselves first.
2. The above paragraph is a SALES PITCH FOR GNEP...an unproven, untested theory of reprocessing of waste that will A) Make the United States the WASTE DUMP for all the world's radioactive waste streams, and B) leave waste sitting unsafely in host communities for CENTURIES under the guise it was NO LONGER WASTE, but a potential future use resource with a value attached thereof.
To reverse the current outdated policy, we need to set up four regional used-fuel storage facilities to act as transfer stations. THIS IS THE SAME SCAM they tried to use in selling communities on Low Level Radioactive Waste Facilities...I sat in on DOZENS of meetings, and trust me...if your community is chosen, they will write laws and statutes in such a way as to FORCE YOU INTO BEING HOST, just as they tried to do with the State of Ohio. These would provide geographic equity and allow relocation of the backlog of used fuel to locations where it can be stored safely, securely, and efficiently for up to 90 years before reprocessing or permanent disposal. Indian Point Spent Fuel was supposed to be GONE by 1998...we are now being told it could be sitting here WELL BEYOND 2060! Do you want to believe a Pro Nuclear sales pitch, or the voice of people that have LIVED THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY LIES? This can be done with existing revenue and provides the time to implement the second part of the plan: developing and demonstrating an acceptable approach for permanent geologic disposal. TRANSLATED...Senator Reid is OLD, and things are always in flux in Washington DC...we just need time to get in some new faces, do some more heavy handed lobbying and elbow twisting.
The key to making interim storage work is to make informed consent, equity, and fair compensation the basis for temporary storage. One possibility is to use a "reverse auction" to enable prospective host communities to win regional support for the sites: Under the president's leadership, the federal government would allot, say, a billion dollars, and request bids from interested communities detailing how they would spend it to address the local impacts of and statewide concerns about the proposed facility. Large-tract federal sites would be especially attractive. For starters, lets make this RETRO-ACTIVE...we have 104 ACTIVE NUCLEAR REACTORS....ONE BILLION EACH for each of those reactors is $104 Billion.
A) $104 Billion is over TEN TIMES the entire amount of liability the Commercial Nuclear Industry has in the case of a significant accident or terrorist attack. Scary when the nuclear industry's own reports say a serious accident at a site such as Indian Point would quickly see damages in excess of HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS.
B) Lets show you just how DISRESPECTFUL of host communities these two assHOLES and the nuclear industry are. The industry wants us the tax payer to give them 100 percent loan guarantees for a reactor that is estimated to cost $10-15 Billion dollars each...keep in mind, that the last ten projects had 300 percent COST OVER RUNS, and that extra $30 Billion a reactor would be AUTOMATICALLY PICKED UP by tax payers. They want two build 200 of these reactors which is a TOTAL COST OF NINE TRILLION DOLLARS two thirds of that sum paid for with Federal Tax Payer dollars, the other $3trillion paid for with our taxes. But in their GENEROSITY, they want to make FOUR COMMUNITIES fight over and DIVIDE between themselves ONE BILLION DOLLARS...in short, about $250 million each, less than the $400 million AIG will pay out in Bonus money with our taxes.
If such compensation is combined with a program that includes local representatives in facility oversight, and that accurately informs citizens of the safety systems and the crucial national interests served (TRANSLATED...we will play on the patriotism of some small rural communities, and make sure you give them a really BIG FLAG at city hall!), many communities and states are likely to welcome these facilities.
At the same time, the US needs to continue locating permanent disposal sites that the nation will eventually need. Why will we need ALL THESE ADDITIONAL SITES? Because if you read GNEP, it makes the entire world's nuclear waste streams the responsibility of the United States of America. The search should be modified to ensure that the facilities are both safe and welcomed by the host community and state.
And then there's the safety question. The best way to gain public acceptance of a repository is to design it with multiple layers of protection, adopted through a deliberate, step-by-step process that uses pilot projects to test out the designs as the facility evolves. (WARNING...go reread that sentence folks....we will start them off small, get them USED TO BEING SLOWLY POISONED by building A SMALL TEST PROJECT...here is the HOOK THEY FUCK YOU WITH FOLKS....to test out the designs AS THE FACILITY EVOLVES! GET IT? They will hook you by making you think in you are just hosting a SMALL TEST PROJECT, but look at the truth of the SMALL PRINT.) The standards we adopt should be protective, achievable, and credible. Once again, potential hosts must be convinced that all decisions about repository implementation will be fully transparent and made with their concurrence. Speak to ANY CITIZEN that has ever sat through an NRC Kangaroo Court Public Meeting!...They listen to you, tell you exactly how they are going to screw you, then against your wishes they do EXACTLY WHAT IT IS THEY WANT TO DO. Call up the NRC as ask them how many Generic Letters are active right now...a generic letter excuses ALL LICENSEES from the rules meant to protect us the General Public.The eventual success of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., which handles military radioactive waste was achieved in this fashion. The SAME PLANT up for a five year license renewal that the citizens DO NOT WANT, but which they are being told they will ACCEPT? That Waste Isolation Pilot Plant?
If Nevada decides it wants some part in this process, the current Yucca Mountain license application could be amended since there will be time for pilot demonstration steps, appropriate compensation, more flexible transportation options, etc. READ THIS FOLKS...its carefully crafted BRIBERY and BLACKMAIL all rolled into one sentence. What is crucial though, and I BRING THIS TO THE ATTENTION OF SENATOR REID...they admit they cannot MOVE FORWARD without a license amendment...WHY YOU ASK...because DOE cannot MEET THE TERMS REQUIRED for their CURRENT APPLICATION, and they DESPERATELY DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO START ALL OVER. They will PAY YOU BLOOD MONEY for those Indian SACRED GROUNDS...come on REID, they are only FUCKING INDIANS...yes folks, this is the WAY THE MILITARY/COMMERCIAL NUCLEAR INDUSTRY THINKS!
A new independent federal commission should handle the overall siting process and a public corporation (akin to the Tennessee Valley Authority) designed specifically for operating new facilities. WARNING...WARNING...WARNING!!! TVA is the most despicable and dishonest Authority ever envisioned, a beast that CANNOT BE KILLED. All American citizens should be VERY AFRAID.
For national, economic, and environmental security reasons, it is now time for presidential leadership to embrace informed consent, fairer burden sharing, and appropriate compensation to meet this critical national energy need. PLEASE READ THIS SENTENCE AGAIN...now, let me paint it RAW AND UGLY...as I write this post the NEI, DOE, DOD and the Military/Commercial Industry are in NEGOTIATIONS, ARE LOBBYING for a PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER THAT WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR SAY, WILL DE FACTO MAKE WHAT IS CONTAINED IN THIS ARTICLE HAPPEN.
• David S. Kosson and Charles W. Powers are professors of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University. They focus on development of multidisciplinary solutions to nuclear waste management issues.
