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| | | published Wednesday, May 29, 2013 | 279 Views :: 1 Comments |
May 25, 2013
While the House of Representatives is still looking to the stalled Yucca Mountain project to solve the nation's Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) problem, the Senate is moving ahead in a different direction. On April 25th, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee released a "discussion draft" of a bill to begin a pilot "consolidated interim storage" program.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) does not support consolidated storage of SNF, as it does not solve the problem of SNF and would actually spreads the problem to new areas. Consolidated storage will expose communities across the country to increased radiation as nuclear waste rolls down highways and train tracks. Instead of consolidated storage, ANA supports the Nuclear Regulatory Commission mandating a system of Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS).
HOSS would keep SNF as close as safely possible to its site of generation, thereby exposing fewer people to radiation. A HOSS program utilizing passively cooled dry casks would be a solution to over-crowded spent fuel pools at reactors and provide increased protection from human or natural disasters, like terrorist attacks and earthquakes.
Read the full Senate Energy and Natural Resources "discussion draft" nuclear waste bill here.
Read ANA's response to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee here
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| | | published Friday, April 26, 2013 | 531 Views :: 1 Comments |
Legislation would establish new agency to find storage for high-level radioactive waste.
| | Gregory Bull | Associated Press file photo FILE - This Sept. 13, 2012 file photo shows the San Onofre nuclear power plant along the Pacific Ocean coastline in San Onofre, Calif. Two years after Japan's nuclear crisis, Alison Macfarlane, the top U.S. regulator, says American nuclear power plants are safer than ever, but not trouble-free. |
By Thomas Burr From the Salt Lake Tribune April 25, 2013
A bipartisan group of senators wants to form a federal agency responsible for finding homes for the nation’s scattered stockpile of nuclear waste — but only if the eventual storage sites would welcome the radioactive leftovers.
The draft legislation, unveiled Thursday, would implement plans from a blue-ribbon commission that sought to end a stalemate over what to do with tens of thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste piling up around the nation at nuclear reactors since the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada was shelved.
The proposal would allow for temporary storage until a permanent facility is constructed. There are no plans at present to house either in Utah. A consortium of utilities backing a nuclear storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation has surrendered its license.
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| | | published Monday, July 02, 2012 | 1144 Views :: 0 Comments |
June 30, 2012
By Eric Connor From the Greenville News (SC)
In America’s capital, a new political realm has emerged in breaking the decades-old stalemate over solving the country’s nuclear waste dilemma — but it’s an impermanent territory that elected leaders in South Carolina, unified in their embrace of nuclear power, say they will not venture into.
Instead, they’ve placed their chips — all in — on a conviction that for 25 years has proved futile.
Sooner than later, they say, an abandoned, multibillion-dollar government project in a desert Nevada mountain must resurrect to become more than the political and geological wasteland that it is.
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| | | published Tuesday, June 26, 2012 | 1878 Views :: 2 Comments |
The following article about the national problem of spent nuclear fuel focuses on South Carolina's unique situation as a producer and storage location for spent fuel. Tom Clements, ANA's Nonproliferation Policy Director is quoted extensively discussing the possibility that South Carolina might become a national nuclear waste dump.
June 3, 2012
By Eric Connor From the Greenville News (SC)
Up the hill from the Oconee Nuclear Station’s imposing triple-reactor domes, in the shadow of the ornamental water tower encircled by symbolic atomic rings, a nondescript complex of graying concrete entombs lethal doses of nuclear waste whose radioactivity will outlive thousands of human generations.
The stockpile is so irradiated that hundreds of spent fuel rod assemblies housed inside must for nearly a decade rest deep beneath water pools near the reactors, where smoldering rods — deadly to the touch — are packed closer together than designers ever intended.
This is radioactive purgatory.
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| | | published Wednesday, June 20, 2012 | 966 Views :: 0 Comments |
This article quotes ANA's Nonproliferation Policy Director Tom Clements questioning Gov. Haley about some of the uncertainties involved in the Department of Energy's Small Modular Reactor program. Some of these uncertainties include the untested nature of the reactor designs, the wisdom of federal subsidies for nuclear power programs, and if South Carolina becoming a Small Modular Reactor hub will mean South Carolina becoming a dump for all of the waste produced in these reactors.
June 19,2012
By Seanna Adcox of the Associated Press Published in the Columbus, IN Republic
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday that South Carolina will fight for federal grants that could make the state a hub for the next-generation nuclear technology and eventually employ thousands of people.
The Republican governor, along with Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, stood with leaders of the nuclear industry to promote South Carolina as the ideal place for designing and building small modular reactors.
"D.C. needs to see we stand arm in arm. We want the projects," Haley said. "It means heavy investment and tons of jobs. ... This is something South Carolina wants and will fight for."
New Jersey-based Holtec International has applied for one of two $225 million grants to be awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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| | | published Friday, February 10, 2012 | 1437 Views :: 0 Comments |
Tell the NRC to Securely Store Spent Nuclear Fuel
Feb. 10, 2012
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering a long-term extension to the Commission’s Waste Confidence decision and rule to account for the storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste for more than 60 years after the licensed life for operation of any commercial nuclear power reactor. Part of this process is the development of an Environmental Impact Statement. This report is the first step in the Environmental Impact Statement process, and public comments on the report will be accepted until February 17, 2012. Read the comment that ANA submitted here.
Submit your own comment!
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| | | published Thursday, February 02, 2012 | 2238 Views :: 1 Comments |
for immediate release: Thursday, January 26, 2012
for further information, contact: Bob Schaeffer: 239-395-6773 Katherine Fuchs: 202-544-0217, ext. 2503 local contacts listed at end of advisory
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future report released today received mixed reviews from groups that monitor sites where large quantities of radioactive waste are stored. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) said major flaws in the report include the Commission’s “failure to advocate prompt removal of commercial spent fuel from reactor cooling pools with placement in hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS) to safeguard commercial spent fuel at nuclear power plants.” ANA and hundreds of community groups had told the Commission that HOSS could protect the heavily reactive material for the decades needed to develop a scientifically sound and publicly acceptable waste disposal program.
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| | | published Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | 1843 Views :: 3 Comments |
For immediate release: January 27, 2012
For further information, contact: Dr. Arjun Makhijani (301) 270-5500, cell (301) 509-6843
Commission Recognizes French Style Reprocessing Will Increase Proliferation Risks Without Solving Waste Problem
Progress on Consent-Based Approach to Geologic Repository Siting
Takoma Park, Maryland -- Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, today commented on some of the recommendations of the final report of the Presidential Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America’s Nuclear Future, released yesterday. The commission was created to address U.S. nuclear waste issues after the Obama administration cancelled the Yucca Mountain program.
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| | | published Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | 672 Views :: 0 Comments |
31 JANUARY 2012
By: Seth P. Tuler, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Webler
From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Article Highlights: - The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future endeavored to engage experts and the general public in developing policies for managing spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.
- Despite an expressed desire to serve as a model of participatory processes, the Commission provided limited opportunities for public input, influence, and involvement.
- To be successful, future decision-making processes for managing spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste will need to be even more transparent, inclusive, and respectful of public participation.
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| | | published Friday, September 09, 2011 | 1189 Views :: 0 Comments |
Sept. 9, 2011
The Western Governors' Association (WGA) has compiled a white paper on nuclear waste transportation and storage. This white paper will be presented at the Sept. 13th Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future meeting in Denver, Co.
Highlights from the WGA white paper include:
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