NRC plays "Nuclear Waste Con Game" on the American people
From Beyond Nuclear:
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday updated its "Nuclear Waste Confidence Rule," expressing "confidence" that commercial irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste (implying reprocessing) can be stored safely and securely, either on-site or off-site, for 60 years after operation licenses have expired at atomic reactors. Added to 60 years of operations (40 year original licenses plus 20 years of extended operations -- NRC has rubberstamped approval for all 59 such license extensions applied for thus far), that adds up to a whopping 120 years of on-site storage, in pools and/or dry casks. That's over half the age of the United States as a country, going backwards in time! But the "first cupful" of high-level radioactive waste, generated by Enrico Fermi in 1942 during the Manhattan Project, has not been "safely and securely" dealt with in nearly 70 years! And suitable geology for a "safe and secure" permanent dumpsite has not been found in over 50 years of searching!
- Log in to post comments
