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posted by azrael on Saturday August 30 2014, @03:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the defer-problems-to-the-future dept.

The New York Times is reporting that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided that nuclear waste from power plants can be stored on site, above ground, in containers that can be maintained and guarded forever.

In her statement, the Chairwoman recognized that this unanimous decision makes it less likely that any permanent storage facility will ever be approved by Congress:

“If you make the assumption that there will be some kind of institution that will exist, like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, that will assure material stays safe for hundreds or thousands of years, there’s not much impetus for Congress to want to deal with this issue. Personally, I think that we can’t say with any certainty what the future will look like. We’re pretty damned poor at predicting the future.”

The decision allows the resumption of Nuclear Licensing for new reactors, and expansion of existing plants by allowing indefinite use of above ground storage that can be monitored repaired and maintained essentially forever.

In June 2012, a court ruled that the commission had not done its homework in studying whether the waste could be stored on an interim basis while awaiting the creation of underground storage facilities. As a result, the commission froze much of its licensing activity two years ago.

The new storage plan is exactly the same as the old storage plan, but drops any pretense of there being a central underground storage facility, while at the same time mumbling some vague plans for 2048.

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Horse With Stripes on Saturday August 30 2014, @04:13PM

    by Horse With Stripes (577) on Saturday August 30 2014, @04:13PM (#87580)

    has decided that nuclear waste from power plants can be stored on site, above ground, in containers that can be maintained and guarded forever.

    They can be maintained and guarded forever but we all know that budget cuts and simply lackadaisical attitudes toward safety and security will prevail. Get ready for a new "OMG, terrorists!" target used to generate public fear and garner federal anti-terrorism dollars: great big vats of above-ground dangerous nuclear waste.

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  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Sunday August 31 2014, @01:49AM

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Sunday August 31 2014, @01:49AM (#87722)

    perhaps a more prgamatic approach is to "burn" the waste in one of the new reactor designs.

    The only way to solve problems are with good engineered solutions on well founded science.

    Breaking the link of reactors to the weapons industry, would be the first step it seems...