Storing Spent Nuclear Fuel

There are over 100 nuclear power facilities operating in the U.S., and 16 decommissioned sites, along with many more sites containing nuclear waste products or weaponry. One facility is being built, while thirty more are in the planning or proposal phases.

"Nuclear power is a method for generating energy by harvesting the unstable nature of the atomic nuclei of the heaviest chemical elements. Nuclear fission occurs when any fissile material, such as Uranium-235, an isotope of Uranium, is concentrated. This causes a nuclear chain reaction, which releases a large amount of heat, boiling water and producing steam, which can drive a steam turbine."¹

As indicated in the definition itself, radioactive isotopes are very unstable, and create great amounts of uncontrollable energy in the form of heat and radiation. Vast and expensive facilites must be built to contain the by-products of nuclear power generation. The waste created, depending upon the elements in use and the isotopes produced, remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, sometimes longer. In the U.S., approximately 3000-tons of high-level nuclear waste is generated each year. Advanced technology and uninterrupted resources are necessities for storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Henri Becquerel, a French scientist, discoverd the radioactive properties of Uranium while researching phosphoresence in 1896. He believed phosphoresence to be related to newly-discoverd X-Ray techology (1895). The dangers to humans were not fully understood until much later, with the last of the radioactive cure-all remedies removed from store shelves by the 1930's. Radiation exposure damages most organisms, ultimately causing cancer or death in many cases, although sometimes not until many years after exposure. Non-lethal symptoms depend upon the type (i.e. oral, topical, etc.) and severity of exposure.₂

Currently, much of the nuclear waste stored in the U.S. is stored in concrete pools filled with refrigerated water. Liquid must be constantly cooled and pumped across the spent fuel rods to contain radiation and prevent uncontrolled fission. Most of these storage pools are located near to their respective power plants. These facilities were all built to be temporary storage sites, some of which are now over 20 years old. The Secretary of Energy was charged with the storage of nuclear waste products when Congress and the President signed the Yucca Mountain Deveopment Act in 2002. A nuclear waste storage facility is part-way through construction, with $10 Billion of earmarked taxpayer contributions already having been spent, at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. This plan has recently been eliminated, and a "blue ribbon panel" is being appointed to develop a new strategy. At this time, all temporary facilities will remain in use until the American government completes a central storage facility or devises a different plan for the waste to be stored. The Yucca Mountain facility was believed by many experts to be the safest place in the U.S. to store nuclear waste.₃ Some American utility companies currently purchase fuel from Russian facilities, and the United States has discussed exporting nuclear waste to Russia for storage at their International Uranium Enrichment Center in Angarask.₄

Nuclear fuel can be recycled, leaving far less radioactive waste after reprocessing, and less material sent to long-term storage facilities. Plutonium can be extracted and reused for MOX fuel for nuclear reactors. France has a large nuclear waste recycling facility, the COGEMA La Hague Site. It has been in operation for 30 years, and now processes over 1000 tons of fuel per year, some of it imported from other countries, all without incident. France also has its own version of Yucca Mountain, which is nearing completion. To date, the US has generated over 50,000 tons of radioactive waste. On-going operations add approximately 2000 tons on to that figure annually.

In seeking new alternate energy sources, our country is intending to partially rely upon nuclear power facilities, but, at this time, we are not actively solving the problems that accompany nuclear technology. Before any more facilities that generate waste are built, should we not build facilities for proper disposal and/or storage of that waste? I feel our country should recycle what we can, and quickly complete permanent storage for what remains.  We cannot possibly expect our "temporary" equipment--some of it past or nearing their decommission dates--to continue running for the hundreds of thousands of years required for some of these isotopes to reach their natural half lives, pumping refrigerated water into an interim pool that must not leak even the tiniest bit.  I shudder to think of the possible consequences of our lackidasical response to the crisis of nuclear waste storage, or the lack there of.