2 used up nuclear fuel dangers
Did you know ‘nuclear waste disposal’ is an oxymoron? You don’t “dispose” of nuclear waste. You can only hope to isolate it and keep it stable.
Nuclear waste and its components have a half-life of 24,000 years. That means that in 24000 years, the nuclear waste being created today will still have half of its radioactivity. That is a scary thought.
Do you realize that worldwide there are over 270,000 tons of nuclear waste, mostly being stored at unsecured nuclear power facilities? In the US alone there are 104 nuclear power plants, and there are 340 more throughout the world.
I shudder to think what an evil terrorist, or even a disgruntled employee, could do with that amount of deadly material.
Nuclear waste storage has failed in this country, just as it has in much of the world. No one wants this stuff in their back yard, and who can blame them? Sites in Nevada and Tennessee have attempted to store and reuse nuclear waste without success. That means that highly radioactive material could be right around the corner from you and your family.
And the 270,000 tons of waste estimates do not include the 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world. This nuclear material that is weaponized is increasingly falling into the hands of unstable and unfriendly governments. You and I both know that its just a matter of time before a loose cannon government or terrorist entity gets a hold of nuclear material and unleashes it on our free society.
So what do you think? Is this something we need to be worried about?
Recommended today:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/radwaste.html
Until a better solution is found I think the current storage facilities being used today is the best solution yet. These storage units are located inside the double lined barded wire fence, where every square inch is monitored with motion detectors and video cameras, not to mention constantly under guard patrol, on the same site as the nuclear plants that produce the waste. These containers are of standardized design and construction throughout the industry (something you can’t unfortunately say about the U.S. Nuclear Plants themselves). The procedure for monitoring them is regulated by the NRC, and they are extremely safe. Standardized procedures also regulate how much fuel can remain stored in the Nuclear Plants storage pools (still vulnerable to potential earthquakes/tsunamis, etc., as applicable), located within the facilities secondary containment boundaries. This requirement encourages the applicable Nuclear Power Plant to expedite the proper construction and installation of these storage containers, keeping up with the waste produced from expendable fuel. If you could examine the strict requirements that goes into the design, construction, and regulation of these storage containers (sorry, need-to-know only) you would rest more peacefully at night. In addition, the containers are stored in the equivalent of above ground ammo-bunkers, incased in heavy-walled concrete.
I ask the same question as already asked. If these fuel rods are still highly radioactive, why are they changed out with new ones.
As I understand it, this Urainium is not of weapons grade. What is the thret???
As an individual with more than 30 years in the nuclear industry, the scariest thing I see is the absolute GARBAGE that all forms of media feed to the American consumers and how much is believed/absorbed by them.
There are several ‘technical solutions’ that are viable. NONE of them will work as long as the people of this land make decisions based on misinformation and fear, instead of facts and logic.
HOLLYWOOD and the uninformed ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORISTS (Greenpeace, UOCS, Sierra Club, etc.) are the real problems, NOT nuclear waste.
good comment john , As I understand things , the fuel rods can be reprocessed leaving only 3% waste , second 90% Of India’s fuel rods are Thorium , a 500 year half life . Which would be safest , both work ?
There is only one solution we must use the stuff until it becomes unusable then when it’s completely unusable then we store it or maybe by that time we figure out a way to use it again, this is the only logical solution, storing it at its hot point is just going to cause problems for everyone including our planet, let’s get smart about this before some joker gets his hands on it and does harm to us!
We need for the Earth’s core to remain
fluid. The core of Mars cooled down
and the magnet field was lost.
We need to keep our magnet field, lets
put it back into the core of the earth.
One question I’ve had for many years, since getting a briefing on nuclear power, just before a deployment on the USS Enterprise, in 1974, was if there is a several thousand years until nuclear materials reach their half life, why do we need to change out fuel rods so often?
Now, I’m just a layman, but I thought that maybe some of the more educated commentors could answer this?
It would seem that the ‘spent’ materials could be used for something else?
Like most Depleted uranium ,or spent fuel rods are used for oil well fracking…its done sll over USA , Canada and the rest of the planet..
and This is a EYE WITNESSED FACT..
The supposed “Safe Storage” is an illusion..its been shoved down dry oil will for years.called “Fracting” kinda like a BunkerBuster Bomb that is being used in Afghanistan and other places in the name of “USA Peace&Freedom”
What ?
I think you are confused with
“norm”
Look it up. I’m a 35 year veteran of drilling and completion and find your comment ridiculous
you sound like you have some knowledge to share. We all live on this planet. Why keep secrets? Let me guess…money??
Slim, Slim, Slim….Schlumberger and Halliburton have been shooting radioactive materials into the Earth for over 65 years in their “logging” procedures. We know, with certainty, that illegal injection wells are used to poison the earth with waste and only suffer fines when discovered. If rural areas protest the construction of such wells, money exchanges hands and the water aquifers are caused to suffer anyway. You cannot learn what is going on just from the floor of a rig or installing valves. The statement you refute is true and you should look it up before the word “ridiculous” is tossed around.
Impact proof containers with vetrifyed containers inside, but 1st perfect Richard Branson’s atmospheric scraping plane to fully penetrate and deliver to a space freighter that takes it to the sun…end of story..thank u very much
Remoleculize it… and use it
Frank,
Interesting information, and very wrong. Yes, nuclear waste cannot be disposed of in the manor we throw out our garbage each week, but there is a way to securely contain it where 24000 years from now (if we live that long) it will be forgotten or new ways will be available to weaken it by accelerating its decay. In fact the US Department of Energy had an excellent plan to secure the potential of leaching any type of radioactive emitters into our water table where many people get their drinking water from using an elect. deep water well pump.
The plan was to Vitrify even the most dangerous types of radioactive material like weapons grade uranium “U235” and weapons grade Plutonium “Pu239”, and all contaminated materials including transuranic waste from making this stuff. By the way, Power Plant Spent Fuel Pellets, Fuel Rods and Fuel Rod bundled assemblies do not have the same radioactive strength as weapons grade and can be easily secured with water or concrete shielding. Back to the best plan that was shot down by a former enemy of ours. The US DOE planned to have a Vitrification plant in Hanford WA. up and running by 1987, then 1992 and in 1993 DOE suspended the project as a result of pressure from Nuclear, and Physicist engineers, who were also pressured by that old foe we had/have!
Before I continue, let me explain what the Vitrification process is… The “hottest” and most dangerous fissionable and non-fissionable radioactive material, alpha emitters, gamma emitters, and contaminated material including transuranic waste would be put into huge melter’s mixing all the radioactive stuff with small balls of glass at about 10µ diameter. The temperature of the melter with its contents would be raised to temperatures well above 2400º F. This would result in a “Hot” stream of mixed materials that would be poured into a high structural grade Stainless Steel “Canister” 24” in diameter and 10’ tall with a wall thickness of 0.125” looking like an old fashion milk bottle, but a bit longer. After filling, a S.S. 2.0” thick plug would be what is called a “Hot Shrink Interference Pressed fit, 2.0” dia. Then another plug would be pressed fit on top of the first one, except it would be welded into place as a permanent plugged seal.
Although every Vitrification plant, would have an onsite “Canister Storage Building”, when it’s filled to capacity these canisters would be sent via rail to an underground Basalt repository. DOE funded the project that was almost completed for this purpose, however, there was too much pressure on the Governor’s and other public officials in each state to prevent the waste canisters from being transported through their state. Currently, Washing State is seeking Congressional funding to excavate a deep permanent repository just for this purpose. Also,
there’s only one Vitrification plant in operation here in the US and that’s the DWPF (Defense Waste Processing Facility) in Savana Georgia. France pioneered Vitrification, and it works fine. Once the melted stuff cools to a solid hunk of glass, it cannot leak or leach any of its contents. Some basalts can be quite porous, others may be non-porous depending whether it cooled above ground or in the ocean.
Now, there’s a lot more to this but I believe I need to get to the point… ALL of the negative and fearful concerns we in the US have adopted to the point of walking away from one of the best ways to power cities came from an experiment Russian KGB Officers adopted as a way to slow down our speeding high-tech advancement the Russians could ill afford to keep up with. This was disclosed to use during a visit and lecture from a very high KGB Officer about 10 years ago. He said that they didn’t believe how gullible we were and how effective this misinformation project was! But it worked, why, most of our spoiled rotten kids and adults have their heads buried or up their ass… you choose, it really doesn’t really matter any more.
John H Sachs
Senior Research Engineer – Retired
U.S. Dept. of Energy
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, Washington
If I have already posted this, please delete or ignore, whatever is easiest.
Mr. Sachs , DWPF is located outside of Aiken,S.C.,not Savannah,Ga. I agree vitrification along with a successful MOX facility is our best path in reprocessing nuclear material. Unfortunately , we live in a time of ignorance and politicizing of anything atomic.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda.!…The question raised is what IS being done? I am certain that the Japanese were equally reassured with similar “famous last words”; now Fukushima has poisoned life in the Pacific and the “safe, smart” process you describe has yet to be initiated. Still the RA materials continue their descent into the earth uncontrolled. Scientists can come up with ideas but often ignore the solutions and disregard consequence. So take your rhetoric, energy knowledge, and false pride where the sun does not shine. It is you who is the gullible soul, believing that man can improve on creation. Very, very gullible and foolish for an adult in your position. But, keep sucking up to your establishment superiors because, truly, in the end, you will not be protected either.
Michael, there is a reason why they don’t send this stuff to the sun – safety. The newest rocket being manufactured is the Falcon Heavy. It can carry 117,000 pounds which is 59 tons. You need nearly 4,600 of these rockets to get rid of all the waste we have right now. If even one of these were to fail before leaving Earth’s orbit, you could kill every living thing in North America.
“There isn’t a space agency or private firm on the planet with a spotless launch record. And we’re not talking about cheapo rockets—last year, the craft carrying NASA’s $280-million Orbiting Carbon Observatory fizzled out and crashed into the ocean near Antarctica. It’s a bummer when a satellite ends up underwater, but it’s an entirely different story if that rocket is packing a few hundred pounds of uranium. And if the uranium caught fire, it could stay airborne and circulate for months, dusting the globe with radioactive ash.”
if all the nuclear waste on the united states was refined & reused the resulting waste could fit in one 4000 sq foot home. Its a problem of a failed policy designed to dissuade Cold War governments from reusing & thus enriching uranium for weapons development. Outdated & over reaching laws are the issue with nuclear waste disposal not the waste itself.
I don’t know where you are from, but I live by Hanford in Washington state. This subject is extremely opposite of what you are saying. Clean up of post WWII materials and plants no longer in use is huge. Has been for years. There is a huge vitrification plant being constricted and most of the wastes from Columbia generating station is converted to more safe forms of storage until they can vitrify it.
The site requires security clearance to even get in and is heavily guarded. There is very little weapons grade material left anyways.
Most of the danger comes from low level waste from ALL of our medical facilities who don’t know what to do with the stuff, so they ship it to the site.
So as far as in these parts, stuff is being dug up and no longer buried like 50 years ago!
We should drop the nuclear waste into Muslim countries where upon impact it will break open an and annihilate all nearby people who from the time of their childhood are taught to either force us to conform to Islam or be killed. But we must only do this in regions that are not near any innocent Christians or Jews who could possibly be affected.
I did not read every comment presented in this email. Considering what I did read, I don’t see a lot of answers about what we do with this stuff. It is here and it wont go away on its own. I am not criticizing anyone, in fact I am pleased to see that there is a lot of concern. I don’t have an answer about what we should do withe waste. Does anyone else?
why are we not sending this waste straight for the sun??
It will vaporize before it hits the sun’s surface and poof it’s gone, and we can remove some of the danger factor in storing this stuff long term.
Then there are methods to generate power from the waste by burning it up completely and leaving behind a far less radio active waste.
come on governments think, apply some knowledge, stop being a disposable society.
The amount of energy to send a ton of waste to the sun would be incredible. The energy to break out of Earth’s gravity is a small fraction of that required to cancel out the Earth’s orbital speed. The Earth is traveling at many tens of thousands of mile per hour around the Sun, and you have to cancel ALL of that speed to fall into the Sun.
Also, you can’t “burn up” nuclear waste. We aren’t talking about dangerous chemicals, but dangerous atoms. No matter how much thermal energy you put into it, it would be just as radioactive as before.
I would like to see the hot nuclear waste used for passive thermal power generation. A few pounds of that stuff could probably power a neighborhood for decades! (End of grid dependence!)
Having worked with nuclear power for more than half my life, I want to say that you have the wrong fear in mind with the nuclear waste. 99% of nuclear waste is meaningless. It is very low level trash. You could surround yourself with it and would probably have no adverse effects. The part that is problematic is the spent fuel assemblies because they still have so much energy in them. But fearing that terrorists would steal them is foolishness. First off, they are huge. 12 feet tall, weighing hundreds of pounds, not readily packaged. Not to mention that if the terrorists managed to get a hold of one they would probably die of radiation sickness within hours. And the nuclear plants are not “unprotected”. They all have security forces that must meet certain standards. They all get challenged periodically by SEAL teams to see if they can keep them out of certain areas. But the problem to fear with this high level nuclear waste is two-fold. The first is the idea that man can create anything that will last long enough to hold this material for it to decay. Everything will eventually start leaking. And for those of you that live near a nuclear facility, I hand you the challenge to that plant in the event of social breakdown. If there was widespread loss of power, each of these sites has redundant diesel generators that will supply emergency power for cooling systems. But those diesels require fuel oil. If there is a challenge in the availability of fuel oil, those diesels could stop working and then you could have the fuel assemblies being stored on site start to boil the water in the pools they are in, overheating, and releasing radioactive gases and liquids into the environment. See the Fukushima Daiichi issues. That is the problem with long term storage of used nuclear fuel.
I believe we do need to be worried about nuclear waste and we need to try to do something to disarm it.
Dear Frank,
I also have been an activist against the evil of this world for many years, and a CHRISTian since 1986. I have also been giving this advice at marches against the evil in society, particularly government entities. I almost took my own life in 1983 following 14 years of hell in prison, not as an inmate, but as an officer!? My main bad treatment came, as what I did and said to the inmates worked, and that really upset Government and staff in general.
The Gun did not go off, and later found out that the same Spirit that created the Heavens and the Earth stopped it from going off. More on this later if you are interested.
So as I’ve said of late I have been saying, that once you thank JESUS for taking your sins at Calvary (but you must believe that he did this first), and ask him to be your LORD and Saviour it will be done. Secondly if you do not believe this is true, ask him to reveal himself to you (but this must be done with all your heart, as you cannot fool GOD), thirdly call on him when in need, and no oine else, no Mary as she is dead and has no authority to help anyone, no Buddha as he is dead too, and no other entity in heaven above, on Earth or under it. Then no one need fear death as we are in His Holy hands. This does not mean we stop fighting for his Righteousness, as Loving GOD and our fellow man is the greatest command which is LOVE, as he is pure unconditional LOVE. Bless you, and you may spread this far and wide with my full permission. Bless you, Frank Colosimo.
The French have used sodium cooled reactors for decades. They built only one type of reactor so if problems arose, they could control it and fix it in every other reactor. In the US, we have 6-7 different types of reactors in use. That becomes problematic when trying to correct problems, find parts, and store waste.
How come the US Navy has never had a problem with their nuclear reactors? The nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was the first nuclear aircraft carrier built. She has been in operation for 51 consecutive years and is due for de-commissioning this year or next. There was never any problem with its nuclear propulsion system. Why? Because the U.S. Navy was smart enough to use only one type of reactor which they could address problems easily if they were to occur. And, they all became experts on the use of one type of reactor for their ships.
The dangers of nuclear waste are in large part a result of the political decisions and irrational grass roots negative pressure put on the nuclear industry.
Some of the answers to the nuclear waste problem lie in the development of the next generation of nuclear power plants; particularly promising is a technology called Thorium molten salt reactors. These reactors use Thorium as the primary fuel. In the MSR it does not create the same long lived, high level radioactive wastes associated with the uranium/plutonium pressurized boiling water reactor fuel cycle. In fact the byproducts of the Thorium MSR are radio nuclides useful and in great demand for medicine and industrial application. In addition, the Thorium MSR can recycle and “burn up” the high level radio active wastes that the nuclear industry has been generating and stockpiling for decades. The MSR is a technology that was proven in several reactors which were operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the 50s and 60s. China has taken our recently declassified engineering documents from that period and assigned a team of over 500 engineers and scientists to build the next generation MSRs by the end of the decade.
We need to get our heads out of the sand and move forward with a nuclear program that will benefit this country with jobs, low cost, safe and reliable power, and a means to effectively dispose of the tons of nuclear waste we have generated to date.
Glenn Warren is spot on!
I worked in the nuclear power generation industry, back when there was such a thing. There were several problems in the industry . . . none of which were the technology.
The first and most critical problem was letting the anti-nuclear/environmental groups dictate the nation’s nuclear energy policy (or, even the energy policy in general). Case in point – now that they have successfully halted the further use of the most effective long-term source of energy we have; they have continued on their mission of now destroying the use of our remaining sources of readily available, affordable energy. Does no drilling in newly-identified ‘sensitive’ areas ring any bells? Does Keystone pipeline ring any bells? Does unrealistic restriction on hydraulic fracturing ring any bells?
Those decisions should be made based on two criteria:
one, the technology involved – is it safe for the workers; and what is the impact on the environment;
two, what are the economics involved – cost of production, cost of alternatives, and cost in terms of impact on people and planet.
Where we fell down was allowing the environmental interest groups to exaggerate the impact and cost and then allowed them to keep beating that dead horse ad infinitum. They brought up some valid points, the points were addressed and/or studied; problem resolved. Then they’d bring up new points and off we’d go again. The utilities were not able to stand the amount of time (time is money) and uncertainty involved in geting new generating facilties on line. They had to give up on viable projects after $100’s of millions had already been spent.
The second problem was planning for handling of the waste generated by these plants.
When the commercial/civilian use of nuclear power was first initiated in the 1950’s, it was understood that the waste issue had to be dealt with. As William Pike stated, a treatment facility was built to convert the waste from uranium fuel into a new even more efficient plutonium fuel. In fact, three plants have been built – the first in West Valley, New York; the second in Morris, Illinois to incorporate new technology; and the third in Barnwell, S.C.
The West Valley plant was closed because escalating regulations made it uneconomical to operate. Chalk that one up to the environmental activists.
The Morris plant process worked in a pilot operation but failed to work successfully in production. Chalk that one up to improper design and perhaps technology.
The Barnwell plant was working fine but operation was aborted due to a 1977 change in government policy which ruled out all US civilian reprocessing as one facet of US non-proliferation policy. Chalk that one up to yet another foolish political decision.
So, the nuclear waste problem was solved, initially, waste treatment plants were designed, built, put into operation, and used successfully – until the politicians got involved. In other countries they have continued to be successfully used without the gloomy predictions and fears of U.S. politicians ever coming to pass.
Subsequent to this monumental stupidity of U.S. politicians, they perpetuated the problem by doing what politician in the U.S. have done so well for the past ?? years – they kicked the can down the road – and have never come up with a solution!
As a result, we are still dependent, in the nuclear power industry, on what I used to refer to as ‘outhouse technology. i.e., If you don’t know what to do with waste products, dig a hole and bury them! We weren’t willing to settle for that with our human and municipal waste and we built treatment plants – some of which are so efficient you can drink the effluent. Why weren’t we smart enough to do that with nuclear waste – we were! We just let the wrong people call the shots. Get the politicians and the tree-huggers out of control and we already have a solution!
Two solutions, in fact!
The first is treatment of spent uranium fuel and conversion into plutonium fuel. That will reduce the volume of waste products that still have to be disposed of.
The second is the disposal of low-level waste at the existing disposal facility in the salt deposits of New Mexico; and the disposal of the high-level waste in the depostory that has been studied and developed at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
I could go on for pages on details of each step of these decisions; but, suffice it to say – the solution to each of these problems exists; we merely have to have the collective will to put the power to act in the hands of the people best qualified to make the decisions. That is NOT the politicians, nor the environmental groups. Those groups must have input, but the decision needs to be out of their hands!
(I got cut off before I finished. My error.) This country gets in it’s own way when it comes to dealing with nuclear waste. A treatment facility was built in South Carolina I believe more than 30 years ago. It was maintained for decades but never allowed to go into operation due to political haggling. The burial facility proposed for Yucca Mountain was ideally suited for it’s intended use, with all sorts of studies and scientific research aimed at nuclear half lives into the millions of years. The geology of that area was quite stable and was shown that migration through the soil to any human would take hundred of thousands of years.
Remember that most nuclear waste came from radioactive elements which were mined from the earth in the first place. Are we just returning it to wince it came??? The residents of the Colorado area and New England receive about 3 times as the rest of us because of the rocks around them. The beaches of the world are more radioactive than inland. And it’s not man made. If man were never on the planet, radioactive material would still abound.
According to the Salk treaty and other agreements with foreign superpowers, our nuclear stockpile of plutonium had to be disposed of or made useless by one of two ways. It could be burned as fuel in a nuclear reactor or poisoned in such a way with other elements that would render it useless as a bomb making material. Burning it as a fuel would seem the best and most practical as it would destroy the plutonium. But this would also generate nuclear waste.
Your parting question as to weather or not we should worry about it,,,,,,,,,,
The effort by citizens should redirected toward getting our elected officials to create an entity that can make decisions based on sound science and have the power to force the right thing for the country to be done without any political repercussions or court actions.
idiots….that is all
I would of said no at one time there was nothing to worry about but, at this time with the president that we have I am at the breaking point . This has to be the most stupidest man I have ever seen . I would not doubt if he wouldn’t use it on us
not an issue at all many worse things to think about
Get rid of all of the nuclear power plants that are in democrat states in the northeast and east coast and the west coast and let them use what the rest of us use. Then there wont be any nuclear waste to re apportion to other states for their benefit! look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Where the bombings occurred there are city parks and buildings all around them. What happened to the so called nuclear waste? Send ours there! Nuclear weapons are just moved around not destroyed like the BS Newsmediawood tell us!
Yucca Mtn. needs approved.
Fukishima had lots of spent fuel stored onsite – look at what that got them.
bb, Stored SNF is not a problem at Fukushima. The problem is what the quake and tsunami did to the reactors.
All you have to do is look at West Valley site in western New York
Yes it is, but what is the solution? I don’t know; but we can help minimize the amount of waist by creating and supplying our own power by utilizing wind and solar power. I can only think of three forms of power that don’t put out waist Wind, Solar, Hydro (water) interestingly Nature can provide all three!
The solution is to commercialize the GEN4 reactor designs which will actually use the existing SNF as fuel. The worst thing to do is bury it. That’s my short answer.
.
Americans need to wake up and stop being distracted by rhertoric. Presidential campaigns, race relations, terrorists’ activity.. are all ploys from that 1% to keep us from asking questions The 1% running the US is running it into the ground. They don’t CARE about Americans! Do the research Only what they can exploit and manipulate. How many Americans do without on a daily basis? Life sustaining food, medications, preventative healthcare and so on. We are living in the MATRIX! As long as the bills are paid and our simple needs are being met, we walk idly by each other. Food/water shortages, one world government and currency are under way.There will come a time when we will need to barter our skills to survive. When will we raise our voices to let the 1% know enough is enough? They exist because of the 99%! WAKE UP!
It’s true that perpetrators who use Enablers to accomplish their abuse, need Enablers TO CONTINUE THE ABUSE. The ball is in the court of the 99%. That’s a fact.
Karen….I used to agree with you about one world government….and I might still….but I think, now, that it is way off into the future. Allow me to explain my position on that. As Maj Smedley Butler put it 80 years ago, “War is a Racket” and too much money is made off WAR, so one world government wouldn’t be profitable . You can google him and you will see what I’m talking about. It will give you some things to think about that you probably never thought about. This world is truly messed up….for sure. Only God knows how the picture is going to end.
We already have a terrorist with nuclear weapons. His name is Obama.
noted
Worried is too mild a term for this problem. We should all be very “worried” for what needs immediate care. I believe humans CAN solve this problem…but will we? We must change how we think first. Right now existence for humans in every country is ALL ABOUT THE MONEY….when we loose that mentality we will have a chance to tackle this menace. Right now there is no money in solving the problem so no one is interested ENOUGH to neutralize nuclear waste into a harmless substance that won’t sicken and kill millions in the future…or be available for terrorists to use right now against the rest of humanity. We all need constant education about nuclear waste and climate change.
Karen, the best way to overcome your fear is to learn about the science and technology. Once you have done that, the fear goes away and is replaced with risk vs benefit.
Martin –
You distilled my rant of several pages into its essence. I’ve spent a carreer being involved in the technology of nuclear power and nuclear waste disposal.
The resulting knowledge of the science and technology has left me with a deep respect for, but no fear of, nuclear power.
Hence, my viewoint is now one of risk vs benefit and leaves me with very little tolerance for the political bullshit that makes such decisions in our country today.
You hit the nail on the head.
First off, the U.S. is anything but a ‘free country’ Secondly, the U.S. administration through it’s political and military machinations this the greatest and most formidable terrorist organization in history and represents the biggest danger to life and the future of the planet – more than any other factor in the world. Look no farther than Washington for the origins of your/our troubles. The whole planet is being systematically victimized by the the global unrest being promulgated by your “free county” which is now basically under martial law. It just hasn’t been ‘officially’ recognized. Those of us outside your borders are not being fooled by the rhetoric and CNN.
I’m with you but the UN with the USA paying for it is the major culprit in global destruction! We just happen to have a key yes man and democrats helping them!
we are not posting on how much we hate the president : why don t u go off in some hills and rant off there..
David Rice is an idiot. You want to F— up the universe like earth. Eric is full of S—. J. Collins is not even on this planet, I seen nuclear waste labeled as such being driven down the road on a semi trailer. Richard Inman is cute. Army sounds like he is in the Army, He had better stay in. Gary Lee should be glowing in the dark, Dude why are you still there????
Sorry for being so blunt but people need to engage their brain before they engage their mouths.
I know I’m an A–H—, but sometimes it takes a little criticism in order for people to take a look. Hopefully I had accomplished this today.
I read most of the comments below and some have a lot of merit. But some are obviously ramblings from people who know nothing about nuclear power. I worked at a nuclear power plant for over thirty years. I learned a lot about nuclear fuel and the construction of nuclear reactors. Nuclear waste disposal is a problem, but might not be as big of a problem as many people think. Most “nuclear waste” is not spent fuel. Instead it is things like paper, water, tools, and other similar items that have become contaminated to the point that it is not worth trying to clean it up. This is low level radioactivity and can be stored almost anywhere if it is in a container that won’t leak for 50 or 100 years. The contamination on these items is usually what is called a short half-life material and not the long half-life material like Uranium and Plutonium.
I noticed that in a couple comments the idea of shooting the nuclear waste into space was brought up. This has been discussed by a lot of people. The problem with it is that no one wants to take the chance that the rocket carrying the waste would malfunction and fall back to Earth. If just one rocket did this it would be quite catastrophic. There wouldn’t be a nuclear explosion, but when the rocket hit the ground it would most likely break open and spread contamination other a fairly wide area.
As far as closing down all of the nuclear power plants in favor of more “geo-friendly” power source, no one has come up with anything that would reliably replace the electricity produced by our present nuc plants. It is nice to talk about solar power, wind power, and geothermal power, but how many of the “little” plants of these types would it take to replace one 1,000 megawatt nuc plant? Natural gas was also mentioned as a possible source of electrical power. We already use gas turbines to produce power. But it is very expensive. And it is another petroleum product that creates “green house” gases when burned. Nuclear power is presently the cleanest and most reliable source of electricity today.
Other countries have nuclear reprocessing plants that takes spent fuel and reduces it down to about one or two percent of its original size and stores it in the shape of a capsule in a tube that goes deep underground. To say that nuclear fuel is “spent” when it is finally removed from a reactor is very misleading. In fact less than 50% of the Uranium is used up and during the nuclear process there is some Plutonium generated. All of this can be recovered for reuse along with all of the structural material that holds the fuel in place. Personally I was hoping to get a couple of spent fuel rods and bury them under my driveway. I figure the residual heat from the fuel would keep the ice and snow off my driveway in the winter.
As for worrying about how long this spent fuel would take to decay away I just can’t see that it is worth worrying about. Several people mentioned 24,000 years. Where are you going to be in 24,000 years? Will people even exist then? For that matter will the Earth still exist?
Good explanation. Thanks
Tony –
Thanks for chiming in with the voice of someone who has been down this road.
I put in a rather long-winded reply to an Oct. 13th post by Glenn Warren near the top of the comments and tried to bring in some of the same experience to the discussion.
Good to see your input.
Get with it and stop the waste of human life. It`s affecting our children and our food and us…We should shot the waste into the sun not leave it here on earth,If we can. If not stop all new plants from being built.
Tesla figured out how to provide limitless energy for next to nothing and the information was seized by those who would sell power created for profit. Also in Tesla’s papers were designs for truly frightening weapons systems that were based on the same principles of free energy. In essence, these “weapons” could be used to simply destroy all of the nuke waste with no trace left behind. Alas, doing so would remove all profit motive for storage of the waste, and that is why the technology is not being used for this purpose. The US military, however, has weaponized the technology, and is using it in limited scenarios. There is profit to be made with war, but not with destroying dangerous waste.
Well Eric you can only speak for the facility that you work at because the one in my backyard just reported a few months ago that over half of their containment was leaking into the ground. Anyone that believes that this is not a problem is a fool. Anyone that thinks that an irresponsible government like the one we have can possible regulate something they barley understand especially when they fail miserably at regulating themselves is a fool. So go blow smoke up someone else’s backside with your rhetoric that we are somehow safe.
U cannot discuss details because you don’t want to be responsible for telling the people what a hazard they live with. The only way we can be safe with this crap is to shoot it into the sun and get it off world!
The crust of the earth is made up of uranium, thorium and potassium and those metals are what powers the earth. The atom is as natural as the sun and the wind on this earth. Everything around us and within us is radioactive to some degree. You can’t get rid of it, but it can’t be controlled.
I work at a spent fuel storage facility. Although I cannt discuss details, the storage of spent fuel is very highly regulated by the NRC and very well protected to the point of overkill. The public has nothing to worry about.
No one ever listens to me but here goes: gather up the nuclear waste, load it in a one-time-use freaking rocket, launch that crap straight up w rockets burning for a few hours, not just a few minutes and that will make sure that it will continue to keep going long after it has left Earth. problem solved. Oh, wait, one more thing: I am venturing a guess that none of this nuclear waste is stored anywhere near where the world elitist, globalist , illuminatists, live.whatcha think?
when I worked at westinghouse elec.corp,thefederal government made all the utilities pay them to dig a big storage facility out west , but the biggest problem is transportation to the storage ficility out west under the mountions in Utah . Why doun’t you ask Harry Reid or the Nucler Regulatory Comission why we’re not putting nuclear wastes at this facility? I would bet the military has been putting stuff there for years. Good Luck.
We have a border problem to the south so why cant we put the stuff in motion activated sprinklers on the southern border that will stop the drugs
Put some razor wire around too.The more the better.
Nuke waste is major dilemna, that Govt./ Business had cared less about, till, as usual, Public became involved. To say it should have been MAJOR consideration before first Nuke was fired up, is hindsight.
Current thinking is to bury in a Mountain, in sealed vaults, at Utilities / Govt.’s cost??? Yea, right.
We, as a smarter Public now, need to fight for Profound correct thought as to “disposal”.
Govt’s doesn’t care, Utilities don’t care,, and of course War Machine could care less……….
Stand up People, time has come and gone for being useless Sheeple / Eloi. Write elected Officials, or vote out the abundance of “bought” Politicians. This is so serious to our Health, our God given rights, and future generations quality of Life….
Sidebar: Notice I didn’t once use “folks”, and have no intention of buying into that mentality
ciao
I live 2 miles from Arkansas Nuclear One (2 Reactors)…just right across the lake…I see the cooling tower from my back yard.They have been storing spent rods since the mid 60’s. They have at least two (maybe more) big containment structures with reinforced concrete walls 3 feet thick. It would take a hell of an earthquake to break one open…magnitude 8 or better. I suspect that radiation would be the least of our concerns if we got that size of quake. I’m a lot more scared’er of nuts like Al Gore than I am of nukes. Besides my third grade teacher said all we have to do is get under our desks and cover our heads. RIGHT???
Aren’t those the cooling towers that all of them have?
Glad to hear from a happy customer!
Arkansas Nuclear One is one of the nuclear poer plants I worked on during my carreer designing and building power plants and on waste storage facilities – from 1970 to 2000.
the true answer for it is shoot it in to the sun. if done in small amounts it would be safer then having it here on Earth.
Craziest idea ever. However, nuclear powered spaceships will prevail in the future.
It’s just a matter of time before someone nukes us or we do it to ourselves. God help us because no one else will.
review your history and scientific fact sheet; 1, Pres. Carter screwed up the efficient recycling of waste by storing it and not reducing the rods only to non reusable material. Other countries are storing their waste in very small spaces and reusing a lot of the nuclear material. We, on the other hand, are not; and are forced to buy old warheads from Russia to make up the balance. This is unforgivable.
That is true, and I would like to add to that. President Clinton de-funded the IFR project and President Nixon de-funded the TMSR project. Both reactor designs would use existing SNF as fuel and both would produce almost zero radioactive waste.
Hanford is the worst in the Nation mess up yet, still is and will be for years in the future.
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/03/08/nuke-sludge-leaking-at-hanford/
Oh…and there’s more tanks discovered ‘leaking’:
http://columbiariverkeeper.org/top-stories/more-tank-leaks-identified-at-hanford-nuclear-site/
Typical that there’s billions spent each year on this nuke site for clean-up and now there’s tanks being over 20 years their designed 20 year life span leaking into the Columbia River, WA.
Therein lies the problem created by the political decision to eliminate the fuel reprocessing plants we had in operation.
Contrary to what Christopher Hahin has stated just below, it is my firm belief that our safety and our energy needs would have better served with the waste treatment provided by one or two federally owned and run reprocessing plants taking the ‘spent nuclear fuel’ from all the operating plants in the U.S., processing it into re-useable fuel, and sending it back to the operating plants.
This first step would have put the security and storage of all of the spent fuel into one facility maintained and protected by state of the art technology and the best security the U.S. government could provide. This woud have been in lieu of putting the security and storage in the hands of hundreds of different utilites, spread all over the country, some of which are barely able to make ends meet and where security, storage and monitoring cost have likely taken a back seat to operating costs.
After the reprocessing step, the resulting small volume of unreuseable material to be disposed of would have been shippped to a central depository (Yucca Mtn, for example) where it would be placed in highly engineered canisters for long-term storage; again, in secure, monitored storage conditions.
To me (YMMV), it makes much more sense to have all these hazardous materials concentrated in the hands of those best able to secure, monitor, and properly maintain them. Rather than have them spread all around the country in places where their security and storage are dependent on a multitude of different corporate management teams.
Just my opinion.
Nuclear waste has been an issue for a long time, and its “disposal” is a subject of great controversy, particualrly since the principal Federal disposal site is located in Nevada. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority, and many Nevadans, have fiercely opposed the storage of nuclear waste. I am writing here from Illinois, where Chicago and its suburbs receive about 50% of our electrical power from nuclear plants. Since nuclear plants are subsidized by Federal funds, and they are shielded from catastophic insurance loss by capping liability, it seems the only real solution is for users of nuclear power, along with its advocate, the DOE, provide funds for the long term and secure storage on geologically stable locations. These storage facilities would be located nearby the nuclear plants in question, and built with durable, radiologically and resistant materials to minimize the risk of shipping nuclear material across the United States to a single facility in Nevada. This dispersal is a redundancy principle that prevents a major problem if there is a major incident in or at the Nevada facility where a massive tonnage of radioactive material would be stored. Terrorism aside, this could include incidents such as truck fires, inundation by a major flood, seismic activity, or corrosion of the waste disposal containers. To think nothing will happen over 24,000 years is the height of wishful thinking. Although disposal near each plant seems to disperse the problem, the amount stored at each location will be far less that the aggregate collection of thousands of tons from all the domestic nuclear plants. Knowing the Federal government, it might start taking in waste fuel from non-domestic plants as a source of revenue. Hopefully in the future we start to see the gradual disappearance of these plants, and a greater reliance on geothermal, wind, solar and natural gas as sources of electrical power conversion.
I live in Saskatchewan, Canada, and it makes me sad to hear that the uranium that was used in WWII was taken from this province. Yes, people that work for these companies rely on this industry for their livelyhood. I am not one of them, but I do live 2.5 miles from an area that those companies store their spent uranium in. Now when I learnt that, it made me upset to think that this all took place in some gov’t office without the consent of the public that live here. I realize the U.S. is having their rights taken away one by one but at least there are people who know what is going on so that you can prepare, possibly. Here in Canada you can wake up to new rules daily. The latest one was that our gov’t has stated that we are preparing in advance to protect our banking system. Our last budget for the country just came out and it talks of the new “Bail in ” program implemented to protect our banking system. No worry for me, I have no savings to steal!! Keep up the good work, Frank.
Robert, there was a war going on. The nuclear bomb was a secrete. They got uranium from the Navajo’s down here in New Mexico too. Now the government is paying for the damage they did back then. Uranium mining has completely changed in recent years with new technology to make it safer.
We deal with nuclear decontamination often. What most people don’t realize is that radioisotopes are not contaminants that can be easily washed off with soap and water or high pressure hoses as they’re currently using in Japan. All high pressure water does is blast the contaminants into the air and force contaminants into every nook and cranny available. The longer you wait before decontaminating a substrate (the surface of something) the greater the chance of the isotopes dissolving into a solution to the point that the only way to get rid of the contaminant is to remove the substrate (what they call “rip and strip” in the industry). The USA has more experience in rip and strip and decontamination than any other country on the planet, but what can the homeowner do? Most of the public, to include doomsday preppers, are woefully unaware of the need for decontamination. They have suits and detectors, but how do you decontaminate a home so that you can move around and live? While we normally don’t provide our products to the public, there is no reason that you can’t read-up on the material (DeconGel) at our website and ask questions. I’ll be glad to answer them. This decontamination technology was developed with the help of government sponsors and it’s the best method of decontamination, but proper decontamination is not cheap.
I live in chillicothe,missouri. they build a new womans prison. so many woman have died there since they put it there. i was told they was bad stuff in the ground. i believe these women are not getting the medical help they need plus if it was built on bad ground?, what can we do to help these women? they are dying alot and no one helps them! please help.
The condition of this world is already out of control. We are all doomed unless, that is, God wills it otherwise. Therefore, our first work of “preparation” should be to surrender to God and His will, asking Him to direct our lives according to His plan for each of us (which is always perfect).
There has been always a lack of governance when it comes to the deposit of radioactive waste. After all the money has been made nobody wants to spend the money to do the right thing with it. so we the people have to again pick up the tab for the greedy and ill prepared. i worked in the nuke field for years and know what kind of things happen all the time i finally got out because i got tried of seeing people get sick and used for the wealthy to get wealthier. Its not going to change any time soon.
KEN
Electricity has come to be the damnation of the human species. It has provided the tyrants the ability to micro-manage us to a degree never imagined.
In regard to nuclear power, this is the worse means of generating electricity ever devised, it is only a matter of time until natural disasters destroy such facilities whereupon the unleashed radioactivity will kill all of us. All the nuclear facilities should be shut down and all the radioactive waste sent into the sun, no matter the cost. Obama should be appointed pilot of the transporting spacecraft.
This situation is especially exasperating when Nicola Tesla discovered and demonstrated a means of drawing all the electrical power we need from nature, with no such disastrous consequences.
Likewise, oil and coal could be replaced with nitrogen generated from water, a technology already operational in thousands of experimenters vehicles.
All these problems result from defects in the United States Constitution.
I am Eric WhoRU, The Radical In The Twilight Zone
Yes – I have been very near to a nuclear disposal sight in southern New Mexico. Late one evening we drove by it and it looked like a scene from “hell”. Can’t see how encapsulating this waste in salt will keep it safe from exposing people. Earthquakes happen!
Wow… only 270,000 tons of nuclear waste, generated over a couple of decades? The coal and oil fired power plants in the US alone generated over 14 *million* tons of sulfur dioxide *EACH YEAR*. As far as waste goes, it looks like nuclear plants are clean as a whistle!
The only reason Yucca Mountain has not yet been approved is because the political forces in Nevada have prevented it. Our political system is designed so that one group, or even one lawmaker, can hold off the rest of the nation. We believe in the rights of the individual over the rights of the many – therefore, if the folks in Nevada don’t want to play for the good of the rest of us, then that’s how it will be.
On the other hand… most components of nuclear power plant waste is actually radioactive for far longer than 24,000 years. For all intents and purposes, Yucca Mountain would be uninhabitable forever.
Last, most nuclear waste from power plants is not much of a risk for terrorists or others getting a hold of… at the research plant I used to work at, used fuel was considered “self-protecting,” meaning anyone that tried to take a used fuel cell out the gate would probably make it half way before their internal organs started to break down, and they started to bleed to death internally. Once the plant had run a few hours, all the guards went home.
Definitely in the Twilight Zone, Eric!
Electricity the “damnation of the human species” ?!
“. . . replaced with nitrogen generated from water, a technology already operational in thousands of experimenters vehicles.”
Your key words – “experimenters vehicles”
I’ve been involved in studies that looked at many, if not most, of the alternative energy sources available. (I have to admit Tesla’s energy sources were not part of those studies). None of them have yet been developed into reliable, large scale, economically-produced sources. Most are still, as you stated, “experimental”
Maybe one day some of those experiments will bear fruit?! Until then??? Back to our caves??
I think that we should take most ( some gov officals must be good?)of our gov.officals n send them to watch the nuclar wast VERY closely as in them being very close to the waste.then haveing observed that maybe the next bunch we elect will repersent the peoples wishes ,rather than their own.put me in charge n that will be my first task,or as they say clear cut n replant
There are also bacteria that have been discovered that decompose radioactive waste. NRC is working to develop these bacteria.
The regulatory process for cetification of spent fuel repository is extremely long, Yucca Mountain has been in it for 24 years. Yucca Mountain certification is almost complete. As a repository, the spent fuel can be retrieved if future applications and/or refinement processing can be competitively developed. A single location can be better protected and secured than the individual nuclear power plants storing their own spent fuel. It can be operational quicker than any other location because it has been planned and proccessed ad nauseum.
Get your elected officials to positively support and complete the Yucca Mountain Repository certification or elect someone who will.
Amen!
This should have been done back in the early to mid- 80’s and we would be comfortably enjoying the relatively cheap power from nuclear power plants.
I live in Nevada and can say Harry Reed is kept in office by the masses in Las Vegas who pored over our boarder from California. Most rural Nevadans I knew while living in one of the two most populated closest communities to Yucca Mountain did not have a problem with it. The uneducated who do not understand the properties of the waist are the people who are putting a stop to permanent storage. By the way, has anyone here been on the DOE bus tour of the Nevada test site where they drive you right up to all the stuff they blew up in the above ground tests, they let us off the buss at the control facility for lunch and the Sudan Creator to walk out on the deck and look down the hole. Amazingly, no barren waist land, eight legged jack rabbits, or three-eyed glowing toads! It was a great experience and an awesome education. I highly recommend it if it is still offered, I went over 11 years ago.
Read up on Thorium reactors. Much safer than our current 1960s reactor technology, cheaper fuel, no meltdowns, low radiation, and can eat some nuclear waste while it’s at it. Though these superior reactors could generate clean, cheap, safe and abundant energy; the “Idiot inChief” is so anti-nuke that he will not ever consider licensing any new plants. This issue is a political one and not driven by science. Continuing to create and transport nuclear waste as we have been is crazy ans stupid, but that’s politics for you.
So what do you propose to do with all of the NUC waste as far as I know there is no way to dispose of it. There is enough of the stuff to destroy all life forms on Earth something like 12 times back in the 70-80s and they keep on generating more and more of it there is no end to it. So if it is stored in Nevada at the underground sight what keeps it out of the water supply on the west side of the continental divide sooner or later it will get a leak and here we go.
Do you know where that underground water from Yucca Mountain goes?
The underground geocline (i.e., ‘Downhill’) on the West side of the Continental Divide, in that region goes to Death Valley!
Know why it’s called Death Valley? Nothing lives there!
Nothing is likely to live there until the earth undergoes another(?) radical shift on its axis. At that point who knows what, if anything, will exist anywhere on the planet.
i have to be honest here,i do believe it will take a masskilling of human beings before we relize humans are heading down the wrong path, we need to teach our children that planet earth is the only egg in the basket,all the prepper shows and this p.f.p. articles are great but if nagasaki and heirosima didnt put us off of war and energys beyond our control,well then we are surely going to perish and justly so. even if you prep correctly the poisons we have created will certainlyput you down.my advise, party ,love your family,teach your children well,and maybe the next generations will truly be the greatist generation
Why do you think I’m as weird as I am ?
See the “GE PRISM” reactor. The solution for spent fuel!
Jim Staub
Retired Nuclear Engineer
The only thing I know about nuclear power is that it shouldnt be allowed . There are so many ways to generate power and nuclear shouldn’t be one of them only fools kill them selves.
Look around you!
The same folks who convinced you that nuclear power shouldn’t be allowed are now working to convince you that the other “many ways to generate power” are also unacceptable.
They don’t want to drill for more oil
They don’t want to alow ‘fracking’ for natural gas
Do they have any VIABLE sources of energy that are acceptable to them?
Look around you!
The same folks who convinced you that nuclear power shouldn’t be allowed, are now working to convince you that the other “many ways to generate power” are also unacceptable.
They don’t want to drill for more oil
They don’t want to allow ‘fracking’ for natural gas
Do they have any VIABLE sources of energy that are acceptable to them?
Maybe you should learn more about nuclear power. While your at it, take a look at the waist generated in the making of solar panels, and the amount of birds killed by wind farms.
Frank – the points you bring up are important and must be dealt with. Like others that have commented, I’ve worked in nuclear plants. They should be respected but not feared. I would eliminate all nuclear power generation IF we had a viable substitute. Coal? I don’t think so with the environmental impacts. Hydro? Not enough available for our needs. Renewable? Yep, it’s great and we should do all we can in that direction, but people typically don’t understand the magnitude of our electricity needs. Wind, solar, hydro, biomass, etc. combined simply cannot replace the large base-load generating plants that supply the needs of our country today. So we need something to transition us from fossil fuels to forms of green energy that is sustainable over the long-term. Today nuclear is the best choice – not perfect – but our best alternative. At least with nuclear we can concentrate the waste into a few contained locations and recycle some of it. That makes the environmental impact controllable, contained and sustainable in the short term. More research into breeder reactors could greatly reduce waste, improve efficiency and reduce the type of material needed for making bombs. But this is only for a transition period, so we MUST concurrently develop and ramp up long-term sustainable forms of energy production including solar. Your efforts toward being self-sufficient and efficient is a grass roots campaign that supports the long term goal. Keep up the great work Frank! And let’s not be afraid to use some nuclear power to make electricity (not bombs!) in the meantime!
Dr. Brown from Australia when to the Necular Commission some years ago,and made the waste product right in front of their eyes. The very next day he went crazy.
great article i totally agree with you frank
Nuclear “Waste” shouldn’t even exist. It should all be recycled/re-manufactured into useable fuel for the power plants that generated it in the first place.
Frank I also have purchased from your site and listened to you advice, but this is one you got all wrong.
Nuclear is the only source of with the capacity to replace fossil fuels. (Dr. Greene formerly of greenpeace)
The spent fuel or waste is stored in very secure facilities and the risk of an accident portrayed by antinuke advocates are farfetched. I live in Nevada and would welcome the opening of the Yucca Mtn. waste repository and think Harry Ried should go to prison for what he’s done to this country, just from an energy standpoint. Most people don’t realize that almost thirty percent of the power generated in this country is done by nuclear facilities that have been safely operating for more than thirty years, without any new plants built in decades. Just imagine what our energy picture would look like if we had continued building only half plants nuclear plants planned, instead of listening to ignorant deluded individuals with antinuke agendas. We wouldn’t be literally over the barrel in this country as we are now, searching for ways to scrimp a few watts of power from solar and wind, which (this dirty little secret of the enivronmentalists) are much more harmful to the environment than nuclear power.
Hey Frank,
I actually work at a nuclear facility. We have been taking dismantled warhead material and down blending it so it can be used in TVA nuclear power plants. At least we are turning something deadly into fuel for power. I know that there are sites in Utah and Nevada that have desert mountain abbandonded salt mines that are being used to store nuclear waste. Those sites are well armed to protect that storage and our facility is highly armed to protect our material. I don’t know about other sites though. I know people are concerned about nuclear. I work with it every day and it has my respect but I feel safe at what I do. My brother works at a chemical plant that is more deadly to the public than our facility could ever be.
Tim
I ve work in nuclear power for many years and trained and work on pwr plants my levels of exposure are less than the Xrays Ive gotten over the years…WE that work with it do not what to have any problems in are lives or to pass anythings on to our kids. We are very very careful in what we do. We have our Family, friends and co workers to take care of that live around the plants and Storge. We do have to follow very Strict Guide lines. On a operating plant you could drink the Seconday cooling water its so safe. Safety is the most important. In the Navy I sleeped 30 ft from the Reactor for years, and I have lived live with no problems. People that say they work in nuclear power and say bad things have only worked in the office. Sure you can have bad thing happen…. but that was 50 to 60 year old designs. the new plants and standards are so safe and so small compared to old plants
Nuclear has never been our answer to fuel/energy. It’s insane! Our greedy corrupt government officials and utility companies could have allowed us to develop safe renewable sources.
The atom is as natural as the sun and wind. Nuclear is renewable because its fuel can be breed in the new advanced reactors for unlimited supply. The newer reactor design have addressed all of the concerns of those plants built 40 years ago. However, they do need to be replaced with renewable energy sources, which should include new nukes in the mix.
ther are so many smartass outher that come up w/ this great way to store, yet ous dumeass are realy the ones that is going to have to stop them soonner or latter for their dumass misstakes
Why will our govt not allow the nucleat waste be recycled for power and energy? Oregon State guys developed an inexpensive way to power our homes, etc using the waste instead of leaving in ground. It is developed but not allowed to be used by our govmt. I think it is Denmark, one of the Scandinavian countries that have it in use. Anyone have website for this info?
I support the use of Yucca Mountain to store and re-use nuclear material.
Ok Frank, so far I have gone along with your information and have purchased quite a bit of it-good stuff, but I am going to have to draw the line here. I worked at a nuclear facility for more than 30 years and you claim the following: mostly being stored at unsecured nuclear power facilities?
That statement is not true, they are stored in a very very securely guarded facility and I live in the 10 mile radius of the plant. I can assure you that “a disgruntled employee” whom we have safeguards for, or a terrorist threat, which we also had safeguards for would be found out and dealt with very severely in less than a seconds time. Those facilities are safe, have redundant systems you wouldn’t believe, and I would appreciate you not spreading information that you obviously know very little about-don’t believe everything you read on the internet. I know better about nuclear power and will accept nothing less, don’t listen to the media, they tilt the stories to sell air time, be sensational, and they are not necessarily factual as I know from having “been there and done that!” Hope you don’t take offense at this, but I would like to keep your information as factual as possible for everyone involved.
Thanks, Corrie. Insider information (both positive and negative) is always best. Thanks for your insight!
Carry, the times where redundency worked were when America wasn’t EMPLOYING terrorists who have made themselves regular Amican citizens everyday. I would love for you to make me feel safe, but these folks even got employed IN THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT. You think guards, police officers, military and such are not target spots too? You feel too safe, I don’t buy it.
I buy it. Lets see if you can get anywhere close to WIPP in New Mexico. The only way a terrorist can penetrate a NPP plant would be with a few 50 cal. uranium tips bullets through his/her body. As for an inside job, Corrie already told us what happens. Security is a major portion of a NPP budget.
Why don’t we put our nuclear waste in space ship we’re not going to use any more and send the waste to the sun. The sun is hot enough to burn it up and get rid of it forever. Then when that’s all gone maybe we can talk the Chinese into not forclosing on the national forrest, that Obama put on the table so he could borrow all that money. <<<<That really is useless anyway since Nixon took the gold from backing the dollar. Is it me are has the whole world lots what ever since it may have ever had???????? Nothing is going to end well and no one really care to change until it affects them. Who is THEM???? oh my its US. YOU AND ME.
REALITY WHAT A CONCEPT
For years I have known that they were having a problem with storing the waste. So have a lot of others but like you said everyones put there head in the sand and hoped it would go away. Now that we’re older some of us have come up for air (that’s polluted) to be concerned. Maybe if everyone who knew about this years ago would have started to care there wouldn’t be quite as much of it as there is. I remember when they were putting nuke waste in barrels and dumping it in the ocean. Whos idea was that? Now the barrels are all rusted and leeking in the ocean polluting the fish. I don’t eat shell fish any more and only farm raised cat fish. And balloons won’t someone make a public announcement about how balloons float away over the ocean and pop, then fish eat them thinking there jelly fish, and it screws up there whole being and a lot of them die. No one cares. A small few know but most are only interested in whats in it for themself.
Look I know I was like that myself but I have always known the truth and told anyone who would listen. Like George Carling talked about in his earth.skit. Don’t worry about the earth its been around longer than us and when its gets tired of our stupidness it’ll just shake us off like fleas. And keep on going.
The best answer to nuclear waste is to use it for producing electricity. The device is called the Resonant Nuclear Battery and was patented on May 30, 1989 under US Patent # 4,835,433 which can be viewed and printed out from the USPTO website.
Low level materials like Sr 90 that radiate alpha or beta radiation which require only a little shielding can be used in portable or moveable items including vehicles. High level materials that radiate gama radiation which requires much heavier shielding can be used in static devices like power generating equipment such as in power substations. This item needs further R&D due to problems concerning frequency stability and power regulation. These problems are electronic in nature, not nuclear, and can be solved by using a separate oscillator to drive the generator instead of having the generator working as its own oscillator. This device has a lot of potental but unfortunately the inventor, Paul M. Brown, was killed on the highway near Boise Idaho in the Spring of 2002 and Peripheral Systems dropped the project. I am hoping that someone will have the interest, the skills, the necessary equipment,and the required licenses to work with radioactive materials to complete this project.
Probably it’s a matter of if, and how bad. As opposed to when. Life is messy. Get used to it.
The magnetic field is the lowest for many years and the Solar flare is the highest since early 1900=an emp destroying all electronic devises incl. 443 nuclear controls=extinction of most life.
Merry Christmas if you believe in religion or happy Solstice of you are not.
Bent, hiding in the Canadian wilderness.
We need more research into recycling nuclear waste material. We are a long way away from a useable solution. But the governments, research institutes, and universities around the world should try harder to find a solution.
You are right when you wrote most folks do not want the waste in their back yards.
You really should look into Energy Solutions. Though isolate and store is the major current method for taking care of waste… spent rods are able to be recycled. Low level waste can be safely stored when it’s kept far from civilization.
Terrorism is a real danger, but the out of control spending of our current government is of way greater concern. The possibility of a financial collapse is a far more realistic danger on our soil, than jihadists. Having someone blow up a storage facility will be way back burner when you can’t find food.
The worst part of this whole senario is the fact that a hughe percent of the folks who are oversease are & have been exposed to the radiation, that all of this gives off; bringing it home to the families of all concerned. Severely affecting their health. From what I understand all army surplus is contaminated in the ‘surplus stores’ so it is not such a great bargain when you shop there. I am sure that the powers that be know exactly what they have been & are doing to these poor people serving there countries as well. When they produce this kind of thing or any thing that is detrimenta to people as well as our dear Planet———everything totally is affected permanently.They should have it figured out how to reverse the process & if that is not an option it should have never been produce for war or electricity. There is such a thing as free energy but they do not want this to be common knowledge as they cannot put a metre on it to make us pay; like many other things. So much for the go green effort that alot of us try to do. Our examples are a terribly poor example & always have been. They are not responsible for their desicions or the consiquences that they have created world wide.We are in a sorry Global disasterly mess ; & we as civilians haven’t any say except to keep paying taxes & donate. When are they going admit that maybe they have or could learn that Two Wrongs do not Make a Right. I think that the horse is long gone from the barn & impossible to shut the door now..
We as a people on this earth have ben deliburatly tecnologicly retarded by malific earthly entitys for the sole purpous of profit and power. If we had the tecnology that has ben deliburatly supressed for the last 100 years we would not need gas or oil or even nuculer, we would be living like the jetsons or startreck in harmony with every living sole on this planet and in the univers. This cant go on and wont go on, It will end possibly even badly and it wouldent be the first time eather.
wnettles, well said! Thank you
I don’t wanrt this Nuclear waste anywhere near me. I don’t want Nuclear Plants anywhere in this country.
We need to come up with something else.
I favor coal because i know the Washington BS is not true nor is the Global Warming therory, otherwise we’d still be in the ice age. Its just normal Earth Cycles.
Coal plants emit more radioactivity than nuclear plants.
Its crazy how many people choose to accept that large amounts of man made radioactive waste in our environment is somehow part of God’s plan. Yes, radioactive elements exist through out the universe but it is foolish of man to use radioactive materials as much as we do. Nuclear scientists will say nuclear energy is safe as long as it’s done correctly, but that’s because it’s their career and they get paid to say things like that. If people used existing clean energy sources (wind, solar, etc) instead of nuclear energy many nuclear scientists and plant operators would be out of jobs. So when some egg head in a white coat says “Don’t worry, nuclear energy is safe for the planet” it’s because they are getting paid or they are brainwashed. I think the main point of this article is that we have lots radioactive waste on this planet and that we should really focus on other clean energy sources instead of continuing to use nuclear energy with our heads in the ground. I know it’s not a perfect world, that radioactive materials are everywhere in the universe, but it is man’s choice to use them to the extent we have even after all the hazardous evidence has piled up. With clean energy, humans can reduce and eventually retire the use of nuclear power plants on earth. ( I don’t mind if humans want to use nuclear energy in space, as long as it is far away from earth and it stays there )
You realize that all of the uranium came out of the ground, don’t you?
And in the ground, it existed in very dilute ores
It can be re-diluted, and put right back. The problem has never been technological, but political.
Gather it up and shoot it into the Sun.
Nuclear waste is a fact of life. If you live on the planet, you have the opportunity to be negatively affected by nuclear waste in your very own lifetime. Not only that, but, your kids and grandkids and great grandkids, and, so on and so forth for about the next 100,000 generations of humans.
Governments are not going to deal with it. They are all just going to kick the can down the road. The nuclear waste football is just too hot for any of them to handle.
So, get used to it. Genetic mutations, cancer, etc. Just a fact of life (or, death, as it were) here on the planet. No one gives a hoot about you or your health. You can’t make them care. They are too busy building their “golden parachute” or trying to figure how to screw someone else out of their retirement coins.
The “Human Condition” is only a temporary blip on the timeline of the universe. Soon, we, and all our problems, will be forgotten by the vastness of the 99.9999999999999999% of stuff around us. Nuclear waste will be ultimately taken care of in time by the same forces that have created the elements.
God does not allow us to play with toys that are more advanced than our intellectual infancy can handle. When we learn how to use the blessings that we have been given, He might just see that we are ready to advance to the next level of learning. Probably, then, will we be given more advanced opportunities to learn. ‘Till then, we better learn to work with what we have already been given.
We can all agree that radioactive waste is bad for the planet in many ways. I believe we can innovate new clean energy sources and use existing clean energy sources (solar, wind, etc) to fill the world’s energy demands without the need for toxic energy sources like nuclear and fossil fuels.
You believe…. in other words, you’re subscribing to religious thought.
Tell us, John, what you KNOW.
If you KNEW anything, you would know that the energy density of solar, wind, etc is far too low to keep our society functioning.
As a nuclear scientist, I commend you for talking a “little” about the problem. However, there may not be as much material at the facilities now as in the last few years: 40 thousand tons of Depleted Uranium or DM (old fuel rods from nuclear power plants) has been manufactured into munitions for our troops in the middle east and just about everywhere else. Not only is the half-life of SOME of the materials 24,000 years, some of the isotopes in this mix of radioactive “trash” have a half-life of over a billion years!
We are sending munitions to our troops that is 30% radioactive. It will contaminate them, alter their genes and be with their descendents forever as malformed genes. When breathed, it WILL eventually cause cancer. The problem is slight for our people compared to the innocent people of the mid east. They will forever be doomed to the horrors of a contaminated world. Their spontaneously aborted babies due to malformation and the cancers induced in the populations forever are the worst of war crimes in all of human history!
I have enjoyed a relationship with you and what you are doing but this post is TOTALY OUT OF LINE the I work for a company that is in the Nuclear Waste Storage/Treatment/Disposal and you are so far off base it is not even funny. This is nothing but a ultra Left Wing Scare tactic, in fact I live in Tennessee and I do not know where you gor your information but I do know that we are very successfull in storing, treating and disposing nuclear waste in a very secur an safe manner. The Nevada disposal facility was closed strictly for political gain not for any technical reason. In short you need to check your facts befor you publish this kind of scare tactic.
Brad,
Could you recommend some better places to do research about nuclear waste and storage in the US?
Frank,
You are terrribly misinformed about nuclear waste. Even the term doesn’t make sense. You have mixed up many facts. Managing nuclear waste is a much easier problem than managing many of the other man made wastes that have been generated over the years. The real characteristic that makes nuclear waste so easy to manage is that it is such a small quantity for the energy that it yields. And yes I have studied this problem for most of my career and I live in a state (NM) that is doing very well managing nuclear waste.
Pat McDaniel
Yes. The problem is ENTIRELY political, not technical.
NO other form of energy literally allows us to put the environmental effects WHEREVER WE CHOOSE.
Frank … I know and painfully agree with your assessment of our future. I was an activist against the Seabrook Nuclear plant in NH in the late 1970’s, and understand the issues well. The reality, cause and effect of our world health situation is now just coming home to roost!
I have spent 20 years trying to figure out now to create a Local Free Economy that was cooperative, complimentary and very competitive to today’s sociopolitical values and currency structures. But I didn’t count on the fact that my every move would be tracked by NSA and Google for crying out loud!
And I didn’t realize that just because I have insight into the tremendous affect that the principles and operation of this model would have on local communities, it didn’t mean that many others would have enough forsight to pay attention. That’s how naive I have been. This country is crisis-oriented, waiting till the last minute to realize the writing on the wall. (You and your wife are exceptions to the rule)
This socioeconomic paradigm model with two strategies working together that makes it work:
1) Its unique volunteer system has strong accountability and high integrity for “customers” and facilitators as well, and will generate 20 – 40 free personal and professional services per year /per county. (this system can be up and running within 2 months with the right kind of response) …
and 2) it has a free workshop for individuals to understand how this system can actually paradigm-shift personal and professional values to offer renewed experiences of freedom/ creativity for the Hard times ahead! PeopleSHARE Services is a publishing, recruiting, training, mentoring service for qualified individuals to do Step 1 of the process.. PSS has been designed to develop the Local Free Economy model in up to 3,000 counties nationwide. But time is quickly running out now..
This business plan is free to all women are best suited to develop this system because they are naturally, nurturing, and have communication skills that help others quickly gain insights to make this a powerful resource to have in every county. Women with business skills, teaching experience and computer experience will do well, working from their homes, churches and other nonprofits.
..
I am hoping the women attached to the men who are reading this website will contact me for more information! Women have much to offer in developing this system right where they live.
(Please notice that all the people submitting comments are men. Women are a valuable resource in getting the nation back on track. (They were instrumental in keeping the factories running in WWII when their men went overseas.)
Have them respond ASAP to my SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS at 108 N. Auburndale St., #404 in Memphis, TN 38104. (Resumes of accomplishment and contact info are needed with their responses.) Database, Public Speaking and Customer Service experience are generally appropriate IF sun flares (CME’s) don’t burn up our electrical and electronic systems. Otherwise, there is a primitive model that will work almost as well.
Onward and Upward, Everyone. Thanks for all you do !
Linda Burkhead,
Memphis, TN
Linda… socialism and communism don’t work. At your age, you have no excuse for not knowing better.
Frank,
Nuke waste is not something we need worry about. Our wonderful, benevolent government will surely never err in waste management of nuclear materials…..or at least not eften enough to harm very many of us.
Daily, face we must the hazards of bathtub drownings, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning strikes, automotive accidents, falling aircraft, angry spouses, naturally occurring lead, mercury and radiation, each more likely to do actual harm.
But thanks for the warning,
Rick
We are way in over our heads. No disrespect to the learned, but what we think we know, we really don’t know very well. God sees and he is not silent. He created all we can’t wrap our brains around. Not that we should cease trying, but, regardless, we are on a non-stop trajectory toward our end here anyway. The point… Make sure you are ready to meet Him. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world (now) and loses or forfeits himself (for eternity)? Luke 9:24.
John, you are incorrect about the Sun. I’ve taught astronomy at the college level for 11 years. The Sun will turn into a Red Giant in 4.5 billion years, long before that in about 1/2 billion year , due to the build up of helium it will slowly brighten and raise the temperature enought to wreck the biosphere. The 1.4 soilar mass limit you refer to is the mass required for it to blow up and go supernaove and it’s really 8 masses since most of the out layers are shed off prior to the implosion during pulsations while it’s in it’s variable star stage. The sun will turn into a red giant, blow off it’s out layers which turn into a planetary nebula like M57 while the core becomes a white dwarf. Just to get you facts right. By the way you can’t burn nuclear waste. This is a problem involving nuclear forces and burning is a chemical process involving electron rearrangement a chemical process. You need to take some basic science before you talk about things you seem not know very well.
I live in Illinois and not only do we have at least ( 11 ) nuclear plants and thats bad enough but
our state is so blue I don’t stand a chance
This Is One Of Our Mountain Of Problems, And It Is A Huge Problem. Voting Seems To Do Nothing. The Huge Pile Of Muck At The Top, Just Keeps Engulfing Us In A Slow And Painful Trap Of Death. In Saying That, And I Could Say All Day To A Large Host Of Insane Stuff Oozing Out From The Top, One Might Want To Tune In To THE PETESANTILLI SHOW On Line Everyday And Listen To A Couple Of Shows. Fasten Your Seatbelt .
liquid radio active waste with with could be injected into some of the old depleted oil reservoirs in some of the more less geologicall stable areas of the world. Grind up the solid stuff into particulate size and suspend in a liquid and inject and dispurse it into a formation 10,000 ft below the ground.
Then you just get contaminated oil that can’t be used for anything.
And if you put it into a geologically unstable area, it had better be a subduction zone….otherwise, you want it in a VERY geologically stable area.
How can we stop this nightmare? We are letting the government and big companies destroy our planet. There has got to be a better solution..Praying for stupidity to turn into intelligence.
Hanaford Storage Facility on the Columbia River.??? I have always thought that the
how about another tangent? I think we need to collectively and mutually agree to vote out each and every one of the government officials who are bawking on the fiscal cliff. the only reason they dont want to pass it is because their fat cat friends wouldn’t fund their re-election coffers. let’s collectively write them, tell them tant average joe is tired of them playing games and trying to figure out some eay to screw the average american taxpayer evem more. tell them to get off their asses and pass the correct fiscal cliff package, and go ahead and stiff the fat cats with a few more bucks of taxes that they can well afford more than you and I
To Richard, One note of correction. The earth will not be engulfed by the sun turning into a red giant. The required mass to create a red giant is 1.47 times the mass of our sun. This is called the Chandrasekkar Limit (spelling?) and has been known for years.
Has anyone ever read in Explore Magazine about Yul Brown creating a torch that would de-activate nuclear waste? Seems the powers that be didn’t want it.
The used fuel is stored at unsecured nuclear power stations? I guess I am just imagining the metal detector, bomb sniffer, and biometric hand geometry scans (yes, plural) that I go through every day just to get to my desk. And those armed security guards (ex military) walking around with M16s with others sitting around in guard houses/torrets must be a figment of my imagination.
It’s totally bull that Reid got Obama to sideline the Yucca Mountain facility. The site is already remote and very secluded in the mountains in Nevada. It is also contaminated beyond use due to past weapons testing. Redesigning the site to support storage would actually put in place strict regulations that would improve the control of materials already present at the site. Additionally, the federal government owns 80% of the land that makes up Nevada so it’s not like there are residents anywhere near the facility.
It seems that every administration so far has been OK with kicking the can down the road. The matter needs to be addressed now. A centralized facility that serves as a repository for all radioactive waste in this country is sorely needed instead of numerous scattered facilities nationwide. Nobody wants this stuff in their neighborhood and that is understandable. But storage at a removed centralized location, like Yucca Mountain, is in the best interests of this country and its citizens. At least the danger site will become known to all and will be able to be monitored by appropriate agencies.
Nevada took in lots of US $ to dig out storage caverns to safely store nuclear waste for thousands of years. However, after the money had been spent and the facility was good to go – prince Harry backed Nevada out. He should be required to repay the government (you and I) for the waste.
If its not one thing its another, you produce it with out a plan of what to do with the waste,sounds like where out to make ever living thing extinct one way or the other.
Reply to John: It is commonly claimed that nuclear fusion does not produce nuclear waste. I suspect that idea is promoted by the Lyndon LaRouche people. It is true that there are no fission products like radioactive strontium and iodine, but there are plenty of neutrons flying around, and whenever they hit a nucleus of an atom in the containment vessel wall, or the building, or the earth below, they generally transmute that atom into a radioactive isotope of some kind. That is massive low level pollution, the worst kind to deal with.
A good idea might be to designate one place on earth, such as Afghanistan or Syria, to be the power center. All of the nuclear waste would remain there. The people would be offered a fat stipend to compensate for loss of health and mutations of their children, or they could be allowed to emigrate if willing to convert to a new nationality and religion compatible with the host country.
Some good ways are available to isolate nuclear waste. One of the most promising is to use plate tectonics: bury the waste in a subduction zone, and it will be sucked deep into the interior of the earth, and not see light of day again for millions of years. That is probably long enough for the human race to not be around to worry about it; let the next dominant species take care of it.
Not all nuclear waste is highly radioactive; the most troublesome is probably the low level stuff because there is so much of it. If you have a ten kilogram chunk of pure U-233 or U-235, I advise you to give it to the North Koreans or the Iranians (in two separate pieces, to be rapidly assembled into one at the destination).
Nuclear reactors use only a small fraction of their fuel; it is removed and purified, then re-used.
Keep in mind that the sun will eventually become a red supergiant and engulf the earth. It might be a good idea to buy real estate on Jupiter.
The big problem with proliferation is that some rogue nations with nukes, like the Peoples Democratic Republic of Communist China, North Korea, and India, do not share our christian values and morality. Nor do they have any tradition of individual liberty or the worth of human life. Perhaps all nuclear weapons should be eliminated; they are mostly obsolete now due to the greatly improved accuracy of conventional missile guidance systems.
In the old days, you threw a bomb 4000 miles, and it might miss a hardened enemy target by a mile. It had to be a big nuke to kill the target. Now days, the miss distance might be six inches; you don’t need a nuke. In fact, some of the nuclear tipped ballistic missiles have been refitted with non-nuke payloads.
In the old days, we did duck and cover drills at school. That is not much use if a nuke goes off on your head. But if it goes off five miles away, and glass is flying, it might be a good idea. Every injury prevented is one less for an overloaded medical care system.
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Believe you’ll find this very interesting –
http://www.naturalnews.com/037915_Health_Ranger_predictions_2013.html#ixzz2Bv2By3yf
It is a topic that is very controversial. I see nuclear energy having great potential in the future. Methods of recycling the nuclear waste can be improved drastically. The nuclear process could utilize alternating cycles of fission and fusion. The waste could be contained in desert areas, where there is no potential for contaminating our valuable water resources, that are highly secretive and highly secure at the same time. These areas need to be flawlessly constructed with superior construction techniques that fully contain this toxic waste. I personally don’t think that nuclear energy is necessary in today’s world. There are many alternatives that are renewable and are much more environmental friendly. What I would recommend to these nuclear power plant owners is to finish up with their nuclear power usage and switch to cleaner renewable energy sources, such as, solar, wind, geothermal, OTEC, tidal, Hydrogen, and overall energy conservation through proper education and incentives received for utilizing these renewable energy sources.
The solution is actually quite simple… return the waste to the original uranium mines. The radioactivity came from there, without harming the water table, etc…. so, the radioactivity can be returned there.
The entire “problem” is political, not technological in nature.