Radioactive waste is nuclear plants’ top pitfall
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, June 20, 2008
(http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Jun/20080620Comm002.asp)

Until there is a solution to a major problem, it is unlikely any new nuclear plants will be built in this country. Renewals of permits for current nuclear power plants will be difficult to obtain because of the same problem.

That problem? Radioactive waste. Since making such waste nonradioactive would violate the laws of physics, some safe place must be found to store this high-level radioactive waste product. Although "spent fuel" would seem to indicate the rods are no longer emitting much, the opposite is true: It is highly radioactive - it becomes so "hot" that it cannot be used in nuclear reactors. The rods are "spent" because they are no longer useful.

Every molecule of so-called spent fuel created since the advent of the Nuclear Age is still here, still emitting harmful rays. It turns out that, to date, no safe place has been located. And given the short life of nations, it could well be that no long-term safe place can be identified. Only the Ming Dynasty in China and the Roman Empire have lasted more than a few hundred years - and given the instability of the world, this nation is unlikely to exist much longer than China or Rome. Radioactive waste remains hazardous for thousands of years. There is no place on Earth that can be assumed safe for that period of time.

Eastern politicians have suggested Yucca Mountain, out in the barren lands of Nevada, as an appropriate place to bury spent fuel rods. The area was initially determined by geologists to be extremely stable - but recent studies have shown the area might not be as stable as original studies indicated. Right now the geologic features under Yucca Mountain are suitable for radioactive waste storage, but concerns have arisen about groundwater seepage, earthquake activities and other disruptions in the future. In addition, what is below a desert mountain today might be on the surface of a tropical area a few thousand years from now. No one can know what the future holds.

There also are political difficulties. The constituents of influential politicians object strongly to their area being designated for a dumping ground for radioactive waste. Even the disposal of low-level radioactive waste was subject to this - when a site for storing such waste was identified, residents howled long and loud. Eventually, the Midwest Compact, a deal between states, was abandoned because no matter what site was identified, there were objections.

The same objections were raised when Yucca Mountain was proposed by Congress as a place to bury radioactive waste. The people of Nevada, led by current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, don’t want that stuff stored anywhere in their state.

There are a number of secondary problems with nuclear power plants, but it is likely those are all subject to solutions. Some are concerned with the enriched fuel being used by renegade nations and terrorist groups for nuclear weapons - plutonium bombs and other such nasties. Tight security - quite a bit is already in place - would alleviate, but not eliminate, this threat.

Still others point to Chernobyl or Three-Mile Island and the dangers of leakage or explosions resulting from the inherent difficulties stemming from high-level radioactive materials. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a number of safety requirements in place to prevent explosions or harmful emissions. Those very regulations, in place to protect human health and safety, cause construction of nuclear power plants to be very expensive. Cutting corners on such safety measures resulted in the Chernobyl disaster.

Strict adherence to safety requirements and technological advances will ensure the public is protected from emissions and explosions.

Most of the problems associated with nuclear power plants can be solved. But there is still one remaining and gigantic problem, and that is what to do with all the high-level radioactive waste. This problem has no foreseeable solution and indeed might be unsolvable. Given the nature of physics, politics and the short life of nations, it is likely that this is the Achilles’ heel of nuclear power plants.