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Yucca Mountain may never be used, but a physicist lays out his argument favoring repositories over costly reprocessing. By Frank von Hippel September 15, 2009 * EmailE-mail * printPrint * Share * increase text size decrease text size Text Size The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project is now comatose, if not dead. And that puts us back at square one on a crucial question: What are we going to do with all the radioactive waste being discharged by U.S. nuclear power reactors? Many conservatives on Capitol Hill favor the French "solution": spent-fuel reprocessing. But reprocessing isn't a solution at all: It's a very expensive and dangerous detour. Reprocessing takes used or "spent" nuclear fuel and dissolves it to separate the uranium and plutonium from the highly radioactive fission products. The plutonium and uranium are then recycled to make new reactor fuel, thereby reducing the amount of fresh uranium required by about 20%. But based on French and Japanese experience, the cost of producing this recycled fuel is several times that of producing fresh uranium reactor fuel.

No matter what we're led to believe, the world's worst polluter is not your cousin who refuses to recycle or that co-worker who drives a gas guzzler or the guy down the block who simply will not try CFL bulbs. "The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined," explains Lucinda Marshall, founder of the Feminist Peace Network. Pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, lead, mercury, and depleted uranium are among the many deadly substances used by the military. What does this mean for us? To start with, it can help illustrate how to best foment a green revolution. As Derrick Jensen reminds us: "Even if every single person in the United States were to change all their light-bulbs to fluorescent, cut the amount they drive in half, recycle half of their household waste, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, use low flow shower heads and wash clothes in lower temperature water, adjusts their thermostats two degrees up or down depending on the season, and plant a tree, it would result in a one time, 21% reduction in carbon emissions."

There's still nowhere to put that toxic waste Nuclear electricity is affordable and emission free People opposed to nuclear energy applications point to the high initial price tag of enormous nuclear generating facilities that can … read more provide enough reliable electricity for several million people; they often overlook the resulting low cost per unit of power when spread over that large market. There are 104 nuclear plants operating in the US today. Many of us who are old enough to remember the controversies surrounding their construction can remember how many times we were told that nuclear power plants are frighteningly expensive and that they always cost more than predicted. We even remember that electrical power prices often increased immediately after the plants went into operation due to the effect of adding those big, expensive plants into the utility rate base. What many people who consider "news" media to be their only information sources rarely understand, however, is that the 104 plants currently operating provide the US with 20% of its electric power at an average production cost of about 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour. They also do not understand that after a few decades of operation and revenue production, the initial mortgages on those plants are largely paid off. The best information of all, which is not really "news" and does not get regularly published on the front page, is that the plants still have at least 20 years of life remaining during which they can produce emission free, low cost power. The companies that own the plants and their stock holders understand the economics pretty well; that is why 18 applications for 25 new plants have been turned into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission already with more in the pipeline. All of the used fuel - what some people call waste - is being carefully stored in a tiny corner of the existing sites, just waiting to be recycled into new fuel. It still contains 95% of its initial potential energy, but

There's still nowhere to put that toxic waste Nuclear electricity is affordable and emission free People opposed to nuclear energy applications point to the high initial price tag of enormous nuclear generating facilities that can … read more provide enough reliable electricity for several million people; they often overlook the resulting low cost per unit of power when spread over that large market. There are 104 nuclear plants operating in the US today. Many of us who are old enough to remember the controversies surrounding their construction can remember how many times we were told that nuclear power plants are frighteningly expensive and that they always cost more than predicted. We even remember that electrical power prices often increased immediately after the plants went into operation due to the effect of adding those big, expensive plants into the utility rate base. What many people who consider "news" media to be their only information sources rarely understand, however, is that the 104 plants currently operating provide the US with 20% of its electric power at an average production cost of about 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour. They also do not understand that after a few decades of operation and revenue production, the initial mortgages on those plants are largely paid off. The best information of all, which is not really "news" and does not get regularly published on the front page, is that the plants still have at least 20 years of life remaining during which they can produce emission free, low cost power. The companies that own the plants and their stock holders understand the economics pretty well; that is why 18 applications for 25 new plants have been turned into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission already with more in the pipeline. All of the used fuel - what some people call waste - is being carefully stored in a tiny corner of the existing sites, just waiting to be recycled into new fuel. It still contains 95% of its initial potential energy, but

Decades of lax screening, haphazard oversight and few rules in the United States and abroad have allowed low-level radioactive materials to slip into the recycled-metal pipeline and, from there, into ordinary goods. As a result, consumers, manufacturers, the metal industry, the environment and public health are bearing a growing cost. Here are some possible solutions:

A US business consortium is applying for permission to turn a North landfill site into a dump for nuclear waste from all over the UK, the Sunday Sun has learned. The Waste Recycling Group Ltd and EnergySolutions are preparing a submission to the Environment Agency to use the Lillyhall landfill site in Cumbria, and if the plans get the green light the site could start taking waste from October. But Greenpeace said the proposal could "blight" the surrounding area, see house prices drop and open the door to further nuclear dumps at landfills. A spokesman for the Waste Recycling Group said: "Our partners are EnergySolutions, a US company with contracts at Sellafield and extensive experience in handling such waste.

"Studsvik of Sweden has signed a contract with Finland's Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) for the dismantling and metal recycling of old steam generators from the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. Studsvik-steam generator A steam generator for treatment at Studsvik (Image: Studsvik) Studsvik's facility near Nyköping, Sweden, melts metal scrap, such as stainless steel, carbon steel, copper, aluminium or lead. Melting reduces the volume and weight of the waste, resulting in reduced costs for interim on-site storage and final disposal. The end-product is metal ingots, which can either be immediately free-released as conventional scrap metal or released after a period of decay storage. Residual products (slag, sorted material, cutting and blasting residues and dust from the ventilation filters) and ingots that cannot be free-released are returned to the customer."

"Having agreed to compensation for Cold War era atomic energy workers who developed cancer and other illnesses, the D.O.E. and other entities of the government have been searching for a solution to nuclear waste. Nuclear power represents an alternative to fossil fuels, but solutions to the lingering radioactive half lives of elements like uranium have not been resolved. For instance, after receiving a report on the severity of the contamination (uranium, nickel and non-uranium) at the Huntington Pilot Plant / Reduction Pilot Plant, a decision was made in 1978-1979 to tear it down. The remains of the production apparatus, ( i.e. hoses), as well as the walls and girders were buried in a classified contaminated location at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The Portsmouth, Paducah, Oak Ridge and Huntington facilities worked both on uranium enrichment and recycling nickel from depleted uranium. Site Specific Meetings --- the next Thursday, May 6 at 6 p.m. at the OSU Endeavor Center --- are ongoing. They are part of a decision making process --- what will be placed on the site of the former gaseous diffusion plant, what will be done with waste buried there, what will be done with waste stored there? (Editor's Note: Documents have confirmed that the HPP/RPP processed nickel powder and recycled scrap uranium from barrier materials at the diffusion plants. Some distinctions exist between "enriched" uranium and "depleted" uranium. We're uncertain whether the "depleted" uranium was /is stored at diffusion plants or transported between various plants.) "

Call it the case of the glowing grater. When an ordinary household cheese grater set off radiation alarms at a Flint scrap metal recycling facility last month, workers were required to send it for testing -- and it turned out to contain the radioactive isotope Cobalt-60. The radiation levels weren't high enough to pose a danger, and the grater wasn't actually glowing. But one Nuclear Regulatory Commission official called the incident "reasonably rare."

Morris could possibly still be in the running for a nuclear recycling facility - not now, but maybe in the future, a federal spokesman says. "The key word here is 'maybe,'" noted Brian Quirke of the U.S. Department of Energy. "I know people likes yeses and nos, but we can't say that at this point. It is premature to say whether Morris will ever be considered in the future siting processes for GNEP-type activities."

WASHINGTON - In another sign of Congress' increasing frustration with the slow pace of the Yucca Mountain project, a longtime nuclear advocate today announced an effort to have the private sector help the Energy Department develop interim nuclear waste storage sites separate from Nevada. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, has put forward a bill that would allow $1 billion annually from the fund designated for Yucca Mountain to instead go for developing nuclear recycling and interim waste storage sites run by public-private ventures.

The government is in favour of recycling the hundreds of tons of highly-radioactive spent uranium fuel that has passed through the country's three nuclear reactors, members of parliament's minerals and energy portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.

French navy boats escorted a vessel carrying a major shipment of recycled nuclear fuel as it pulled out of a northern port Thursday to begin its 70-day trip to Japan. The Pacific Heron, a specially adapted ship with a British police team on board to head off possible hijackers, left Cherbourg to deliver the shipment of MOX, a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium, to Japanese power plants. Its departure came despite a request by the environmental group Greenpeace to the UN nuclear watchdog to stop the shipment of "an extremely dangerous and proliferating substance" that is "unsafe and unnecessary."

A VESSEL carrying a major shipment of recycled nuclear fuel is expected to arrive in Japan as soon as Monday after its 70-day trip from France, local media reported. The convoy, which left Cherbourg in March to deliver the MOX fuel - a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium - is expected to arrive in the central port of Omaezaki to unload part of the shipment, Kyodo News reported. The business daily Nikkei in a similar report said that the convoy was due to arrive at the port 'as soon as Monday.' The Pacific Heron, a specially adapted ship with a British police team on board to head off possible hijackers, is then expected to unload fuel at two other ports adjacent to nuclear plants in southwestern Japan, the reports said.

After a Knoxville metal recycler melted nuclear material that had inadvertently infiltrated its mill, the company learned its lesson: The combination of radiation detectors and a watchful eye can prevent massive, costly messes. The Knoxville company, Gerdau Ameristeel, has since weeded out radioactive isotopes sent to it with scrap metal at least 50 times, according to reports from a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission database. Gerdau Ameristeel has developed an elaborate firewall to keep out castoff nuclear material, according to Jim Turner, corporate environmental director of the Toronto-based company, which has an executive office in Tampa, Fla.

Admittedly, it sounds like bad science fiction, but long-term exposure to such products as diverse as reclining chairs, common kitchen utensils and tableware, elevator buttons and construction steel could be a long-term health hazard. That's because radioactively tainted metal is increasingly turning up in common consumer goods and industrial products, thanks to widespread use of radioactive isotopes, increased recycling in the United States that sometimes inadvertently processes them and imports of metal products from countries like China that have a relaxed attitude toward consumer safety. And there are reports that exporters in China, India, the former Soviet bloc and some African nations are taking advantage of the fact that the United States has no regulations specifying unacceptable levels of radiation in imports.

For more than a month in the summer of 2006, a metal recycler in Longview, Texas, produced half a million pounds of radioactive material, state and federal documents show. When LeTourneau Inc. workers melted Cesium-137 -- a radioactive material commonly released in nuclear accidents -- the dust containing the radioactive isotope contaminated the workers, along with sections of the facility, according to a July 2006 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report. No workers suffered direct or immediate harm that could be detected in medical screening. And none of the metal sent to LeTourneau's customers was radioactive, according to the report.

Among the biggest challenges facing the nuclear power industry is figuring out what to do with all the waste. Radioactive leftovers have been piling up for decades, and it's become clear that the controversial long-term repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, isn't going to solve the problem entirely. The site's capacity is 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste; by the end of 2006, nuclear power plants had generated some 56,000 metric tons of spent fuel, and that amount is growing by about 2,000 metric tons each year.

"HNN has confirmed through publicly available, unclassified documents that the workers at the formerly 'secret' Huntington Pilot Plant/Reduction Pilot Plant (HPP/RPP) on the INCO campus were exposed to [at least] "trace quantities" of Neptunium and Plutonium. The Huntington facility received nickel from reactors at Hansford and Savannah River, as well as the Paducah and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants. The Portsmouth, Ohio, plant is located in Piketon, Ohio. Vina Colley, a compensated Portsmouth (Piketon) Diffusion Plant former atomic worker and activist for compensation of workers, believes that plutonium and other residue on materials sent to Huntington for recycling and decontamination eventually made the Huntington plant contaminated beyond clean up. "

* Russian supplies to keep filling global supply gap * Russia seeks lucrative direct deals with U.S. firms * Eyes China, India and other markets * Uranium mines to expand production By Robin Paxton MOSCOW, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Nearly one in 10 U.S. households runs on power from Soviet nuclear bombs. Now Russia hopes its Cold War arsenal, twinned with fast-growing uranium mines and enrichment capacity, will also be powering China, India and other booming economies when a 20-year nuclear fuel pact with the United States expires in 2013. Russia has expressed no desire to refresh the 'Megatons to Megawatts' programme, under which it will recycle the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads and create enough uranium to power the entire United States for two years.

* Russian supplies to keep filling global supply gap * Russia seeks lucrative direct deals with U.S. firms * Eyes China, India and other markets * Uranium mines to expand production By Robin Paxton MOSCOW, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Nearly one in 10 U.S. households runs on power from Soviet nuclear bombs. Now Russia hopes its Cold War arsenal, twinned with fast-growing uranium mines and enrichment capacity, will also be powering China, India and other booming economies when a 20-year nuclear fuel pact with the United States expires in 2013. Russia has expressed no desire to refresh the 'Megatons to Megawatts' programme, under which it will recycle the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads and create enough uranium to power the entire United States for two years.

The U.S. House sent a message to Italy, to Utah-based EnergySolutions, and to the world Wednesday -- the United States will not be a dumping ground for other nations' radioactive waste. By a vote of 309-112, members wisely approved the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act, which bans radioactive waste imports. Co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the measure aims to tame EnergySolutions' international business aspirations. The company is seeking a license from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to import 20,000 tons of contaminated materials from Italy's nuclear power industry. The waste would be processed at the firm's recycling facility in Tennessee, and 1,600 tons of leftovers would land in the company's low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Tooele County, the only repository available for waste from 36 states.

The U.S. House sent a message to Italy, to Utah-based EnergySolutions, and to the world Wednesday -- the United States will not be a dumping ground for other nations' radioactive waste. By a vote of 309-112, members wisely approved the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act, which bans radioactive waste imports. Co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the measure aims to tame EnergySolutions' international business aspirations. The company is seeking a license from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to import 20,000 tons of contaminated materials from Italy's nuclear power industry. The waste would be processed at the firm's recycling facility in Tennessee, and 1,600 tons of leftovers would land in the company's low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Tooele County, the only repository available for waste from 36 states.