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