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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 31 2014, @06:42AM
tl;dr too big to fail
Nuclear is ridiculously expensive. There wouldn't be a single production reactor going if it wasn't for massive subsidies. And the big boys want to keep milking their investment forever. For many people the invention of clean abundant energy would be a horrible setback. Nevermind the radioactive waste, it's simply not interesting to these sociopaths. And unless we do something to it, it will be there forever. And forever is a long time.
Nuclear is a holy cow, it's too legit to quit. Disagree and you'll find yourself picking up your teeth...