Decades-old war over Yucca Mountain nuclear dump resumes under Trump budget plan

Started by walkstall, April 01, 2017, 05:21:18 AM

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walkstall

Q there is hope...

Decades-old war over Yucca Mountain nuclear dump resumes under Trump budget plan

snip~
The $120 million outlined by Trump this month in his budget blueprint would restart the ponderous licensing process that was abandoned by the Obama administration and begin plans for a temporary storage facility at an undetermined location.

With 99 operating reactors, supplying about 20% of the nation's electricity, and four more under construction, the nuclear industry considers a permanent storage facility such as Yucca Mountain to be a top priority. About two dozen more retired or demolished plants have stranded waste in need of a permanent home.


more @
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-na-yucca-revival-20170329-story.html
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Solar

Honestly? It's time to shit can these lawyers, it's time to kill their gravy train.

"They think because Reid is gone, this will be a cakewalk. Wrong," Halstead said. "I see them going through a licensing procedure that will cost $1.5 billion and take five years, with a 50% chance of success."

The delays have resulted in staggering costs. The government promised nuclear utilities decades ago that it would take the spent fuel by 1998. Customers have paid a fraction of a penny on every kilowatt-hour of electricity into a fund for waste storage, which now contains about $36 billion.

The Energy Department's failure to keep its promise to move forward with a disposal project, even while it collected the money, has created a swamp of litigation.

Most of the nation's commercial reactors, including the shuttered San Onofre plant in northern San Diego County, are located on rivers, lakes and oceans — a risky location for storing highly radioactive fuel rods. And much of the nation's nuclear weapons waste, which could also end up at Yucca Mountain, is stored in leaky tanks and steel drums.

The nation's nuclear utilities have won judgments and settlements of $6.1 billion, arguing that the government's failure to take the waste has increased their storage and operation costs, said Jay Silberg, an attorney representing the industry. And the Energy Department has projected that it may be liable for up to $25 billion more.

"Maybe we are getting back on track," Silberg said of Trump's budget plan. "I don't think anybody is jumping for joy, but there is optimism."
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je_freedom

Quote from: Solar on April 01, 2017, 08:18:04 AM
Honestly? It's time to shit can these lawyers, it's time to kill their gravy train.

That's probably right.  It's probably the lawyers filing sham lawsuits,
not NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) who are objecting.
Yucca Mountain is a pretty remote place.

I remember reading years ago about
an Indian (er, Native American) tribe in Colorado
offering to host the site in return for payment.

The storage method is very safe.
They grind the radioactive material into dust,
and mix the dust with glass  and mold it into balls.
Even if the glass breaks,
only a tiny amount of radioactive material is exposed.

I wouldn't mind if it were stored as close to me as Kentucky.
It has VERY stable geology.  As does Ohio,
except Ohio gets glaciers every quarter million years or so.
Here are the 10 RINOs who voted to impeach Trump on Jan. 13, 2021 - NEVER forget!
WY  Liz Cheney      SC 7  Tom Rice             WA 4  Dan Newhouse    IL 16  Adam Kinzinger    OH 16  Anthony Gonzalez
MI 6  Fred Upton    WA 3  Jaime Herrera Beutler    MI 3  Peter Meijer       NY 24  John Katko       CA 21  David Valadao

Solar

Quote from: je_freedom on April 02, 2017, 08:50:24 PM
That's probably right.  It's probably the lawyers filing sham lawsuits,
not NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) who are objecting.
Yucca Mountain is a pretty remote place.

I remember reading years ago about
an Indian (er, Native American) tribe in Colorado
offering to host the site in return for payment.

The storage method is very safe.
They grind the radioactive material into dust,
and mix the dust with glass  and mold it into balls.
Even if the glass breaks,
only a tiny amount of radioactive material is exposed.

I wouldn't mind if it were stored as close to me as Kentucky.
It has VERY stable geology.  As does Ohio,
except Ohio gets glaciers every quarter million years or so.
I believe the mistake was allowing for medical waste as well as any and all nuclear related waste.
Had they just kept it isolated to energy generation, period, this may have already been signed into law.
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Q PATRIOT!!!

je_freedom

Quote from: Solar on April 02, 2017, 08:54:58 PM
I believe the mistake was allowing for medical waste as well as any and all nuclear related waste.
Had they just kept it isolated to energy generation, period, this may have already been signed into law.

Medical waste can be disposed of by incineration.
Nuclear medical waste decays quickly enough
that it's undetectable after a month.
(In most cases, much sooner.)
Here are the 10 RINOs who voted to impeach Trump on Jan. 13, 2021 - NEVER forget!
WY  Liz Cheney      SC 7  Tom Rice             WA 4  Dan Newhouse    IL 16  Adam Kinzinger    OH 16  Anthony Gonzalez
MI 6  Fred Upton    WA 3  Jaime Herrera Beutler    MI 3  Peter Meijer       NY 24  John Katko       CA 21  David Valadao

quiller


quiller

Walks recognized above that I hold a deep interest in the Yucca project, and although events tended to move slowly (until recently), I've tried to keep an open mind about this project. Nye County, Nevada is almost as remote a place as the U.S. Government is likely to find.

The site itself is already on government property. Literally next door to Area 51 (one of the most secure military sites on U.S. soil). Okay, so much for security, especially figuring they want these canisters planted about 1,000 yards underground, yet well above any water table. Experts now have reversed prior opposition to geophysical issues and now say the site is the safest of all those formerly considered.

Restarting this will not be easy, or cheap. Obama did everything he could to block this, INCLUDING the creation of a national monument in order to block the proposed rail tracks needed to reach the site.

This links to a pro-nuclear site which evidently wants to recycle the spent fuel. I include it because it does do a reasonable historical overview.

http://www.theenergycollective.com/rodadams/2401240/trump-budget-blueprint-doe-will-revive-yucca-conflict-little-enable-nuclear

The rail angle is still developing. I'm trying to get through to the writer of this, for a few follow-up questions on routing.

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/04/05-trumps-plan-to-store-nuclear-waste-in-nevada-could-revive-proposed-yucca-mountain-route