cephalotus wrote:
I believe that those facilities will become a huge threat to humans in a collapse scenario
socrates1fan wrote:
U.S. May Face Inevitable Nuclear Power Exit
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 122927.htm
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
cephalotus wrote:Only for a few days???
Plantagenet wrote:socrates1fan wrote:
U.S. May Face Inevitable Nuclear Power Exit
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 122927.htm
Thats a misleading title, as the article is about the Obama administration providing money to support the construction of two new nuclear power plants in the USA.
Backing from Obama and the dems for nuclear power isn't bad for nuclear power---its really really GOOD for nuclear power.
Tanada wrote:Fear of nuclear power is the same as the fear of heights (acrophobia) or small spaces (claustrophobia), there is no reasoning behind it because it is not based on actual damage done to the person in fear, it is based on the potential damage to the person who is fearful.
If anything were like the media presents it to be then we would have all died from every possible threat long long ago. That doesn't keep people from having zombie apocalypse nightmares, or ebola bioterrorism nightmares, but in this world we live in your chances of dieing from starvation or violence are vastly greater than your odds of falling out of a skyscraper window, being crushed to death, or getting fatal radiation poisoning.
dissident wrote:Only if you are all total morons. Will the backup generators, that only need to run for a few days, disappear or be comprised? The only reason we had the Fukushima disaster is because of idiotic deployment of a US building design to a tsunami prone coastal area in Japan. If they paid some high school student to revise the design the first thing that would have been suggested was to move the backup generators out of the basement and onto the rocky hill right behind the plant.
dissident wrote:That's right, you mentioned some hypothetical power outage in Germany causing Fukushima like disasters. This is pure BS because the nuclear power plants would remain intact. The blackout we had here in Ontario and North East USA in 2003 caused nuclear power plants to be shut down and then restarted over the course of 2 weeks. There were no meltdowns. I am not going to engage in moving goal posts debates. Come up with better scenarios for nuclear Holocausts in Germany.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Dan Lamont/Corbis
A proposed underground repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is technically sound, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded.
The US Department of Energy’s 2008 proposal to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is technically sound, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff said on 29 January.
With the release of the final two volumes of a five-part technical analysis, the commission closed another chapter on the controversial repository nearly five years after President Barack Obama abandoned the project, and more than a quarter century after the site was selected. While the staff recommended against approving construction, the solid technical review could embolden Republicans who now control both houses of Congress and would like to see Yucca Mountain revived.
“At this point it would be difficult to revive the project,” says Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “All of the people who were working on this project have moved on, and they have new jobs.”
In January 2012, an independent commission appointed by the White House to analyze the country’s nuclear waste policy recommended starting from scratch and looking for communities and states that are willing to host a repository. The commission also recommended the establishment of an interim storage program, but lawmakers on Capitol Hill have yet to tackle the issue.
NRC staff released its technical analysis under orders from a federal court, which in 2013 ruled that the agency must continue with the licensing process as long as it has money to do so. Although the DOE has shown the project to be geologically sound, the staff said in its report to the full commission, construction would be impossible until the federal government secures the necessary land and water rights from the state of Nevada, which is vehemently opposed to the project.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
White House Proposes Reviving Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site
WASHINGTON — The White House’s fiscal 2018 budget plan for the U.S. Department of Energy includes $120 million to restart licensing for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a project stalled for years by lawsuits and local opposition.
The move signals that President Donald Trump may consider the site as a solution to extending the lives of existing U.S. nuclear power plants that have been hobbled by a lack of places to get rid of their spent nuclear fuel.
"These investments would accelerate progress on fulfilling the federal government's obligations to address nuclear waste, enhance national security, and reduce future taxpayer burden," according to a summary of the budget proposal.
Yucca Mountain has been studied by the U.S. government since the 1970s as a potential repository for the nation's radioactive waste and billions of dollars have been spent on the project.
But it has never opened for business because of legal challenges and widespread opposition from local politicians, environmentalists and Native American groups.
In 2010, then-President Barack Obama withdrew the license to store waste at Yucca amid opposition from then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada.
Trump's energy secretary, Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing that restarting the Yucca Mountain project could not be ruled out, but that he would collaborate with states.
"I am very aware that this is an issue this country has been flummoxed by for 30 years. We have spent billions of dollars on this issue," Perry told the hearing in January. "I’ll work closely with you and the members of this committee to find the answers to this issue."
The White House proposal for the Department of Energy budget calls for an overall cut of 5.6 percent, which would include the elimination of some research programs.
(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
dang1t wrote:While I do not feel nuclear energy is THE solution, I feel it is an important option that cannot be ignored. The biggest drawback to nuclear power, even with pebble bed reactors, is radioactive waste. Waste storage sites like Yucca Mountain are not only controversial, but extremely expensive. Moreover, they cannot guarantee that radioactive waste will not ever seep into the ground water table or that earthquakes will not destroy the facility, or that the material might fall into the wrong hands.
'Reset’ on nation’s nuclear waste policy includes Yucca Mountain
‘Reset’ on nation’s nuclear waste policy includes Yucca Mountain
Members of a congressional tour make their way through the north portal of Yucca Mountain near Mercury on Saturday, July 14, 2018. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto
Members of a congressional tour make their way through the north portal of Yucca Mountain near Mercury on Saturday, July 14, 2018. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto
February 27, 2019 - 6:15 pm
WASHINGTON — A panel of scientists are urging a “reset” of the nation’s stalled nuclear waste management system and recommendations to manage and store the material that include using Yucca Mountain as a potential repository.
The proposals were included in a 126-page report, “Reset of America’s Nuclear Waste Management,” that addresses the buildup of highly radioactive waste from commercial power plants and military programs stranded at 75 sites around the country.
Scientists involved with the report were on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss a way forward, or a reset of current management and policy to address the lack of safe storage for the waste.
The report, released in January, includes development of a consensus-based siting process, but one that would still include Yucca Mountain as a candidate.
The inclusion of the site located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas would continue the travesty of the 1987 decision by Congress that singled out “Yucca Mountain as the only site to be considered for development of a national nuclear waste repository,” said Steve Frishman, a technical consultant to the state of Nevada.
He noted that state, local and tribal leaders, as well as business groups and environmentalists in Nevada, are staunchly opposed to permanent waste storage in Nevada, and claim that the site is unsafe despite Department of Energy studies and recommendations.
Opposition to Yucca Mountain has led to an impasse on storing nuclear waste.
“The site for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository was formally selected in 2002,” the reported noted. “Today, the fate of that site is in political limbo.”
The report further noted that there is “no clear path forward” to manage nuclear waste produced by commercial power plants.
The report compiled by scientists at Stanford University and George Washington University recommends taking the management of nuclear waste storage away from the DOE and creating either a new single-purpose nuclear waste management organization, or a non-profit corporation owned by the nuclear utility industry to handle the waste.
The proposals would take congressional approval and new laws to transfer funds collected from nuclear power companies to build facilities to store the waste.
Many of the topics covered in the reset report were also covered, with differing emphasis, by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future in 2012, Frishman said. The commission did not consider Yucca Mountain as a potential repository.
The report comes as Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., plans a push in the Senate to resolve the three-decade impasse that has left nuclear waste piled up at generating plants across the country.
Alexander, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on energy, had planned a bipartisan tour of Yucca Mountain on Friday, but was forced to postpone the bipartisan trip due to scheduling conflicts.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both Democrats, were invited to travel with the delegation of six senators and DOE staffers to tour the tunnel bored into the geologic formation in Nye County.
Cortez Masto said she had planned to educate her colleagues on how the $19 billion that has been spent on the site with nothing to show for the money, and to emphasize the state’s objection to storing the nation’s stockpile of nuclear waste.
Only Nevada’s rural counties, including Nye County where the site is located, favor continuation of licensing hearings to determine if the location is safe for storage. The rural counties see development at Yucca Mountain as an economic boon that would provide tax revenue for schools and local governments.
Former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the Review-Journal in an interview this month that Yucca Mountain would never be developed because of the astronomical cost to complete the facility. He suggested utility companies place the waste in dry casks and bury them on site.
Reid was instrumental in swaying President Barack Obama to withdraw funding that shelved the ongoing licensing hearings on DOE’s application to construct a repository at Yucca Mountain.
President Donald Trump has proposed restarting the licensing process in his past two budget proposals to Congress. The House also passed a law to streamline the procedure, but all attempts died in the Senate, which stripped out funding in spending bills and never took up the House bill.
If the licensing process restarts, Nevada has filed 218 “contentions,” or objections that would have to be settled before a construction permit is issued.
Experts testified before the House in 2016 that that process could take three to five years.
Meanwhile, two private groups have filed applications with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permits to build interim storage facilities in New Mexico and Texas.
Alexander said he favors developing interim storage sites while a strategy on permanent storage can be settled. He told his subcommittee last year that he views Yucca Mountain as part of the solution.
Contact Gary Martin at [email protected] or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests