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ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Radioactive Waste

No safe, permanent solution has yet been found anywhere in the world - and may never be found - for the nuclear waste problem. In the U.S., the only identified and flawed high-level radioactive waste deep repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada has been canceled. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an end to the production of nuclear waste and for securing the existing reactor waste in hardened on-site storage.

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Wednesday
Jan132016

"Door cracks open to U.S. nuclear waste storage in Great Lakes basin"

A 2009 photo of the Wolf River, a tributary of the Fox River, near Lily, Wis. at a military park along Wisconsin Highway 55. The river is designated a National Wild and Scenic River. (Wikimedia Commons | Royalbroil) As reported by Garret Ellison at MLive, the State of Wisconsin House of Representatives' passage by voice vote (meaning how individual members voted was not recorded) of Assembly Bill 384 would open up the state to not only new atomic reactors, but also a radioative waste dump.

The legislation -- which has not yet cleared the State of Wisconsin Senate -- would repeal a 33-year old ban on new reactors in the state. As reported by Al Gedicks, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, the ban was enacted in the first place, to protect Wisconsin from being targeted for a national high-level radioactive waste dump.

In the 1980s, Wisconsin was at the very top of the list for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in its "Eastern site search" for a commercial irradiated nuclear fuel and nuclear weapons complex high-level radioactive waste dump-site.

DOE specifically targeted a granite formation in northern WI named the Wolf River Batholith (see photo, above left). Another granite formation under consideration in northern WI by DOE was the Puritan Pluton.

But the Eastern site search was indefinitely suspended in 1986, and the sole focus for a national dump-site became Yucca Mountain with the "Screw Nevada bill" of 1987 (officially entited the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act). A clause in the "Screw Nevada bill" prohibited granite formations from being further considered, but a 2008 DOE report revealed that the agency was still interested in the potential for a granite repository in any of a large number of states, including WI. And current DOE experimentation with deep borehole disposal is specifically focused on granite geology.

As Gedicks warned, Assembly Bill 384's passage by voice vote in the WI State House of Representatives has moved the state one step closer to placing itself back on DOE's target list for an Eastern high-level radioactive waste dump. Let's hope the WI State Senate has more wisdom, than to get rid of such basic protections.

Tuesday
Jan122016

"Bill would invite radioactive waste dump to Wisconsin"

Al GedicksAl Gedicks, of La Crosse, WI (photo, left) is executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, and an emeritus professor of sociology at UW-La Crosse. He has written an op-ed in the Wisconsin State Journal warning against current state legislative efforts to repeal a long-standing, common sense moratorium on new reactors in Wisconsin.

His op-ed begins:

Under current law, the state cannot approve another nuclear power plant unless there is a federally licensed repository for high-level nuclear waste, and the plant wouldn’t burden ratepayers. The nuclear industry can’t meet these common-sense conditions that have protected Wisconsin citizens for 33 years, so it wants to repeal the law.

If Wisconsin’s moratorium on building nuclear power plants is repealed, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will have all the more reason to reconsider the granite bedrock of Wisconsin’s Wolf River Batholith as a permanent nuclear waste repository. The DOE is desperate to find a host for a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste because of the failed attempt to site such a repository on the lands of the Western Shoshone Indians in Nevada.

In December 2015, the DOE launched a so-called “consent-based process” to site an underground repository for high-level nuclear waste from commercial reactors.

The legislative sponsors of the repeal seem to be unaware that the moratorium was enacted to protect Wisconsin citizens from becoming the host to a permanent geologic nuclear waste repository.

More.

Monday
Jan112016

"The Money Behind Dem Support to Dump the Nuke Plant Moratorium"

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has published an analysis on why certain Wisconsin State Assembly Democrats are supporting a Republican-sponsored bill, Assembly Bill (AB) 384, which would repeal a 33-year-old ban on new atomic reactors in WI until a national repository exists for WI's high-level radioactive waste, and until no undue burden on WI ratepayers from the proposed new reactor can be shown (that is, an assurance that the proposed new reactor is cost-competitive with other sources of electricity).

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign points out that "Banning new nuke plants has generally been a Democratic cause for decades."

The analysis reports:

The measure, Assembly Bill 384, is sponsored by Sen. Frank Lasee, of De Pere, and Rep. Kevin Petersen, of Waupaca, and is backed by utilities, labor unions, the business community and the rightwing ideological group, Americans for Prosperity.  The bill is opposed by environmentalists and a utility watchdog. After a hearing on the bill, the Assembly Committee on Energy and Utilities voted 13-0 to recommend AB384 for legislative approval. The Assembly, which is controlled by Republicans by a 63 to 36 margin, is scheduled to vote on the bill on Tuesday.

Contributions to current Democratic lawmakers from the utility industry, and from the electrical, carpentry, plumbing and other trades whose unions support the bill, totaled about $510,000 between January 2011 and June 2015, including about $31,000 to the five Democrats on the Assembly committee who voted for the bill. Those Democrats and their contributions were:

Rep. Robb Kahl, of Monona, about $11,900, including nearly $6,200 from trades unions and about $5,700 from utilities;

Rep. Josh Zepnick, of Milwaukee, $7,400, including $4,100 from trades unions and $3,300 from utilities;

Rep. Eric Genrich, of Green Bay, $5,550, including $4,750 from trades unions and $800 from utilities;

Rep. Melissa Sargent, of Madison, $3,200, including $2,450 from trades unions and $750 from utilities;

Rep. Amanda Stuck, of Appleton, $3,000, all from trades unions.

Monday
Jan112016

DOE announces exact location and time for first "Consent-based Siting kick-off meeting" in Washington, DC on Jan. 20

DOE's new "truth in advertizing" logo?!

[DOE has extended the public comment deadline to July 31, 2016: DOE is extending the comment period for the "Invitation for Public Comment to Inform the Design of a Consent-Based Siting Process for Nuclear Waste Storage and Disposal Facilities'' to July 31, 2016. See the Federal Register Notice, dated March 22, 2016.]

On Jan. 11th, "The Consent-based Siting Team" at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy sent out this message by email:

...a "kick-off" meeting to set the tone for our consent-based siting initiative will be held on [Wed.] January 20, 2016 at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel (999 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001) from 1 PM-4 PM. We welcome your participation—in person or via webcast. [Link to Webcast - https://join.onstreammedia.com/go/ast/consent-based-siting-kickoff-meeting]

Please register here: Kickoff Meeting Registration and be sure to check our website for updates on Consent-based Siting http://energy.gov/ne/consent-based-siting.

This additional information is provided at DOE's website:

Our “kick-off meeting” will be held on January 20, 2016 from 1 PM-4 PM at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel (999 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001) and will be webcast for those who cannot attend in person. Dr. Lynn Orr, Undersecretary for Science and Energy, will provide the keynote, followed by a panel discussion on DOE's planning activities for an integrated waste management system and a consent-based approach to siting. There will be an opportunity for questions to the panel, as well as an informational poster session. An agenda can be found here.

Tellingly, it appears there is no opportunity to submit public comments at this meeting "kicking off" a  public comment period! What kind of tone is that to set? DOE, yet again, seems to be tone deaf. One has to wonder how sincere DOE is about soliciting public comments?! The DOE, whose name has already long been "radioactive mud" when it comes to public trust, has outdone itself!

Who says DOE isn't law abiding? They simply prioritize the Second Law of Thermodynamics! Perhaps everyone's "kick-off" comment should be that DOE change its name to Department of Entropy (see logo, above left)?!

It was for such reasons the Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America's Nuclear Future, in its Final Report, in Jan. 2012, made as one of its top key recommendations that DOE must be replaced by a new, independent entity, to take over radioactive waste management, due to the deep public distrust of DOE after decades of bungling, and worse (collusion and complicity with industry). And who was one of the BRC's members? The current Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz!

And yet, DOE insists on remaining in charge, including the carrying out of this "Consent-based Siting" definition setting process, with strong indications it intends to stick around -- and remain in charge -- throughout the "consent-based siting," and construction and operations, of not only pilot and full-scale parking lot dumps, but also permanent dumpsites (and don't forget about the stealth deep boreholes, perhaps coming to a granitic body near you!)

The following additional information is provided at DOE's Eventbrite website page:

Event Details

Public Meeting to Discuss Next Steps Towards Implementing a Consent-Based Siting Process for Nuclear Waste Storage and Disposal Facilities

The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) is implementing a consent-based siting process to establish an integrated waste management system to transport, store, and dispose of commercial spent nuclear fuel and high level defense radioactive waste. In a consent-based siting approach, DOE will work with communities, tribal governments and states across the country that express interest in hosting any of the facilities identified as part of an integrated waste management system.  DOE is hosting a public meeting on January 20, 2016 to discuss next steps towards implementing a consent-based siting process for nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities.  The agenda includes an introduction and overview of consent-based siting by DOE, discussion of 2016 Public Engagement opportunities, and a Question and Answer session.

Link to Webcast - https://join.onstreammedia.com/go/ast/consent-based-siting-kickoff-meeting

 

Beyond Nuclear will attend in person. We encourage everyone who can, to either attend in person, or to attend and take part via webcast. DOE must be watch-dogged, at every turn!

Please note that a half-dozen more such public comment meetings are supposed to take place around the country in coming weeks and months. As DOE announces them, one by one, Beyond Nuclear will strive to get the word out right away, so folks in those regions can prepare to take part. DOE has not explained why it is being so coy about the exact places, dates, and times for those additional public comment meetings (or even if, unlike its "kick-off" meeting, an actual opportunity for submission of public comments will be allowed at those meetings!)

Although word has reached us that written comments can be turned in at the DC meeting by in-person attendees, and those watching via Webcast can email in comments, the entire point of an in-person meeting is to also allow for the oral submission of public comments! DOE is not allowing this at the DC meeting. It is putting the burden on the public to prepare written comments.

Public involvement, to stop DOE's unacceptable attempts to twist the meaning of "consent," is essential. Low income communities, including Native American reservations, are, yet again, at the top of DOE's target list for parking lot dumps. 

Please see Beyond Nuclear's December 23, 2015 "The Nuclear Grinch Who Stole Xmas" alert about the launch of this DOE "Consent-based Siting" process, for more information.

Tuesday
Jan052016

The latest radioactive rabbit hole: DOE's "deep borehole disposal" scheme targets 26 states for high-level waste dumps!

As announced by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) press release, a consortium -- including many decades long nuclear establishment member Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, OH -- has been awarded a $35 million taxpayer funded contract to drill a deep borehole, more than three miles down, into the crystalline granite of Rugby, ND.

Although no radioactive waste will be dumped in the hole during the test, the experiment's overriding raison d'etre is to learn lessons that could be applied elsewhere. As DOE's press release concludes:

Scientists have identified many regions in the United States that have large, geologically stable rock formations similar to the Rugby, North Dakota location. The work in North Dakota will help increase understanding of similar locations across the country.

In fact, in Dec., 2008, DOE published a Report...on the Need for a Second Repository. The report made clear that, as of spring 2010, the country's first repository (then targeted at Yucca Mountain, NV, a project wisely canceled by the Obama administration as "unworkable") would have already been full, at least under current legal constraints, if that dump have ever been opened.

The first repository is initially capped at 63,000 metric tons of commercial waste, as well as an additional 7,000 metric tons of nuclear weapons waste, by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1983, as Amended. By spring 2010, 63,000 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel had already been generated by the U.S. nuclear power industry.

That is, a second repository would now be needed, to accommodate the dumping of the 2,000 metric tons per year of additional commercial irradiated nuclear fuel being generated across the U.S. by atomic reactors.

Figure 3 on page 12 (16 of 20 on PDF counter) of DOE's 2008 report shows that each of the Lower 48 states is under consideration for the second high-level radioactive waste dump. 25 of those states are being targeted because of their granite geology.

DOE names the states with what it considers promising granite geology for radioactive waste disposal:

DOE reference documents...identify 17 states within which there were granitic bodies believed to be adequate for investigation for siting a repository for the second repository program. The states identified included: [Minnestota; Wisconsin; Michigan; Maine; New Hampshire; Vermont; Massachusetts; Connecticut; Pennsylvania; New York; New Jersey; Delaware; Maryland; Virginia; North Carolina; South Carolina; Georgia.]

In fact, in Vermont alone, seven separate sites were targeted; a similar large number were targeted in Minnesota. Two were targeted in New Hampshire, as were two (the Puritan Pluton, and the Wolf River Batholith) in Wisconsin. One was targeted in Maine -- below Lake Sebago!

Beyond Nuclear warned in November 2007, in the lead up to the New Hampshire presidential primary of early 2008, that the Granite State could be targeted again as the nation's high-level radioactive waste dump.

And sure enough, as reported by Nancy West in the NH Business Review on Dec. 10, 2015, a New Hampshire state law from 1986, banning high-level radioactive waste burial in the Granite State, was very quietly repealed in 2011 -- by a line or two of legislative language, buried in a massive state budget bill. The legislative maneuver was so secretive, that it is still not known which NH legislator(s) orchestrated it, or why. The discovery was made by NH State Rep. Renny Cushing (D-Hampton), a founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in the mid-1970s. Together with other Clamshell Alliance founders such as Paul Gunter (now serving as Beyond Nuclear's Reactor Oversight Project Director), Cushing led the mid-1980s charge across NH that saw almost 100+ towns across the state declare their opposition to radioactive waste disposal. The state government followed suit by passing the radioactive waste dump ban at that time. Cushing has now introduced a bill to re-establish the dump ban.

Along similar lines, recent pro-nuclear state legislative action in Wisconsin -- to repeal a decades-long ban on new reactors, until a radioactive waste solution is found -- could make the Badger State vulnerable to being re-targeted, now for deep borehole high-level radioactive waste disposal. The lobbying effort is being led by such nuclear establishment figures as Michael Corradini, a professor in UW-Madison's DOE (that is, taxpayer)-funded nuclear engineering department, and a member, and subcommittee chairman, of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's largely industry friendly rubber-stamp Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. Corradini experienced a sudden reversal during the George W. Bush administration, when he was forced to immediately resign his position, as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, after it was revealed he had written blatantly un-scientific pro-Yucca Mountain dump advocacy editorials.

But DOE's target list, in the 2008 Report on the Need for a Second Repository, continued:

Supporting references identify eight additional states under consideration by the crystalline rock program as having granitic bodies that could be adequate for investigation for siting a repository for the second repository program:

[Washington; Idaho; Arizona; Wyoming; Texas; Alabama; South Dakota; Oklahoma.] (page 11, or 15 of 20 on the PDF counter)

Given the choice of North Dakota for the test borehole, presumably it too would now be added to the target list. That adds up to a total of 26 states being eyed by DOE as potential deep borehole disposal high-level radioactive waste dumps!

The DOE press release announcing the deep borehole disposal experiment also stated:

Over 40 years ago, scientists suggested the idea of disposing of nuclear weapons production waste in holes drilled miles into granite. In January 2012 the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future recommended research into the possibility of using deep boreholes “particularly as a disposal alternative for certain forms of waste that have essentially no potential for re-use.”

In fact, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was a member of the Obama administration's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, an entirely pro-nuclear power panel set up to find a "Plan B" for radioactive waste management, in light of Yucca's cancellation as a dump, in order to promote nuclear power's expansion.

In an Orwellian afterthought, DOE's high-level radioactive waste disposal deep borehole experiment comes wrapped in a "clean energy" false façade. DOE's press release also states:

One of the most promising applications is the potential for disposal of certain types of high-level radioactive wastes; another could be geothermal energy development. (emphasis added)

Last October, Beyond Nuclear warned that the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy (ONE, or NE, mandated with promoting nuclear power) was brining to the surface its long subterranean (as in stealth) deep borehole disposal scheme. The warning came after Beyond Nuclear attended a U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meeting that focused on the previously largely stealth deep borehole disposal scheme.