| Over the past 24 years, each time your house or | | | | year. Using the same yardstick since the 1960s, we |
| business consumed a nuclear-generated kilowatt-hour | | | | would have 40 such mountains of carbon dioxide, but |
| of electricity, you were billed - by mandate of the U.S. | | | | one small football field of nuclear waste. |
| government - one-tenth of one penny to pay for the | | | | A Mountain Which Can Solve the |
| storage of nuclear waste. And those pennies add up. | | | | Current Waste Disposal Issue |
| Since 1982, the Nuclear Waste Fund has grown to | | | | After passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the |
| more than $28 billion. The plan back then was to | | | | U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) chose nine locations |
| safely dispose of the nuclear waste left over after | | | | in six states as potential permanent repository sites. |
| providing 20 percent of the nation's electricity through | | | | The DOE whittled this list down to five sites after |
| nuclear energy. Instead, like a ticking time bomb, about | | | | various technical studies and environmental |
| 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel rods are chilling out in | | | | assessments. After intensive scientific study, the DOE |
| 141 concrete cooling ponds never intended for | | | | chose its finalists: Yucca Mountain, Nevada, Deaf Smith |
| long-term use. Many are within a few dozen miles of | | | | County, Texas and Hanford, Washington. Following |
| large cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, | | | | lengthy environmental studies of all three sites, |
| Washington and Miami. | | | | Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in |
| Now, at least nine states are heating up over the | | | | 1987 and designated Yucca Mountain to be studied as |
| localized nuclear waste issue. On September 13th, | | | | the final destination for nuclear waste. |
| Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined state | | | | "We've been studying Yucca Mountain for 22 years," |
| attorneys general in California, Connecticut, Maine, | | | | Steven Kraft told us during a recent telephone |
| Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, | | | | interview. Mr. Kraft is mechanical engineer who serves |
| Vermont and Wisconsin in calling on Congress to | | | | as the senior director for Used Fuel Management at |
| reject legislation enabling the federal government to | | | | the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), and was part of the |
| designate nuclear waste storage facilities in all states | | | | Recovery Team following the Three Mile Island |
| with nuclear power plants, superceding objections by | | | | accident in March 1979. "It is the most studied piece of |
| the state's governor or state and local zoning and | | | | real estate on the face of the earth. There isn't |
| environmental laws. | | | | anything we don't know about it." |
| The endless merry-go-round of deciding upon a final | | | | Why didn't they pick someplace far away like |
| resting place for nuclear waste has been studied for | | | | Mongolia, Siberia or Greenland? "You're making the |
| more than two decades, has cost taxpayers more | | | | assumption that somehow the remoteness of a |
| than $9 billion and has actually been solved. Unless of | | | | location makes it okay," Kraft responded. "You're |
| course, you are talking about an ideal solution which is | | | | talking about places where there are geologic |
| required to be as satisfactory for up to one million | | | | instabilities or the geology is very difficult to |
| years from now as it might be some 10,000 years into | | | | understand." There are also proposals suggesting ice |
| the future. That appears to be the most recent verdict | | | | sheet disposal, deep ocean disposal, or simply blasting |
| - let's keep nuclear waste in temporary storage | | | | the waste into outer space. "Yucca Mountain meets all |
| scattered across geologically challenged locations, | | | | of the requirements, and I can't think of a better site," |
| some near major cities, for decades to come, | | | | Kraft explained. "They have an awful good rock body |
| because a minority of environmentalists are | | | | down there that has withstood a lot of scientific |
| "uncomfortable" with a well-studied, scientifically | | | | scrutiny. It is by happenstance of geology they have a |
| satisfactory centralized disposal site in a remote | | | | good location." |
| location. Instead of moving forward with a site, which | | | | And what is the key to geology? "What makes |
| will reportedly store the waste safely for 10,000 years | | | | Yucca Mountain such a good site is, in the formation |
| (and probably up to 80,000 years), the environmental | | | | below the repository, are naturally occurring zeolites," |
| lobby would prefer a toxic risk for tens of millions of | | | | Kraft pointed out. Water softeners rely upon zeolites |
| Americans from 'overcrowded' temporary storage | | | | as ion-exchange beds. "Zeolites strip out a lot of the |
| sites. They would like to stall matters until scientists can | | | | radionuclides and belays the flow of water,' he |
| prove a centralized storage site can survive all | | | | explained. "By the time you get to the accessible |
| potential abuse for up to one million years. | | | | environment, the dose rate stays well below EPA |
| Unfortunately, even if Congress acts in early 2007, the | | | | standards." |
| best-case scenario for a centralized nuclear waste | | | | No location is perfect. Even if all nuclear power plants |
| repository brings us to 2017. And that would require | | | | were turned off today, more than 108 million pounds of |
| quite a few politicians and bureaucrats coming to their | | | | nuclear waste would require disposition. You can't burn |
| senses. While they haggle over whether the nuclear | | | | nuclear fuel pellets. Nuclear waste is not flammable; it is |
| waste can be safely stored for 10,000 years (which a | | | | too weak to explode. Each year, the nation's 103 |
| number of scientific studies confirm that it can), or | | | | reactors produce another 2,000 metric tons of waste. |
| whether the waste site must store the spent nuclear | | | | It has to end up somewhere. The Yucca Mountain |
| fuel for one million years, electricity consumers are | | | | area is geologically stable. The last volcanic eruption - a |
| annually paying $1 billion for temporary storage. | | | | small one - occurred 80,000 years ago. About 12 to 15 |
| The amount of nuclear waste accumulating since U.S. | | | | million years ago, large eruptions north of Yucca |
| utilities began powering our homes with nuclear energy | | | | Mountain laid down the sturdy bedrock which formed |
| comes to about 54,000 metric tons over the past | | | | this mountain. |
| forty years. To put this in perspective, it would take up | | | | The Yucca Mountain area only receives about seven |
| the size of a football field with a depth of less than 10 | | | | inches of rainfall per year. Ninety percent runs off the |
| yards. Nuclear energy does not generate carbon | | | | side of the mountain ridge and mostly evaporates or is |
| dioxide emissions. By contrast, the amount of carbon | | | | absorbed by vegetation. The proposed repository is |
| dioxide released into the atmosphere through fossil | | | | 1000 feet underground. And the site is 1000 feet above |
| fuels is enormous. According to one of the world's | | | | the water table. Rainwater seeping through rock |
| leading environmental scientists, James Lovelock, who | | | | fractures is negligible and would likely be trapped inside |
| recently authored "The Revenge of Gaia" (Basic | | | | the mountain. |
| Books, 2006), one could freeze the annual carbon | | | | COPYRIGHT © 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL |
| dioxide emissions and create a mountain one mile high | | | | RIGHTS RESERVED. |
| and twelve miles in circumference. And that's each | | | | |