Soon, the Blue Ribbon Panel will release it’s suggestions for dealing with high level nuclear wastes. One of the touted solutions is “reprocessing.” I’ve already addressed the issue stating that it would be a huge economic, technical, and environmental folly. It would not SOLVE the waste issue, but simply move (recycle) the most dangerous parts all around the country; would create 6x more waste volume in the form of liquids, which would have to be solidified (vitrified) and then disposed of in a repository; and would require all new types of reactors, many reprocessing and vitrification plants, an enormous transportation methodology to move this stuff all around the country…all technologically very complex, and most importantly, very, very expensive, committing us and many future generations to this nuclear insanity.
Just a sample of what this would involve…"the vitrification plant being constructed at Hanford to treat the liquid reprocessing wastes is 20 years behind schedule, 55% complete, 80% designed!, and current cost of over $12 billion." Heaven forbid that anyone raise issues about all this…there’s big money being made here!
"The $12.2 billion Waste Treatment Plant, or vitrification plant, was not designed to treat the entire 56 million gallons of Hanford radioactive and chemical waste stored in underground tanks"…another plant will have to be built! Remember, the plant itself becomes radioactive and has a defined life expectancy and will have to be decommissioned. We’ll have to build another plant to deal with the wastes from the first…then another…and another…!!!!!!!! Great for the nuclear industry!
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/07/10/1561678/delay-proposed-in-work-to-treat.html#ixzz1RoNXGLU4
And here’s the nuclear renaissance in full swing…"Georgia Power officials told state regulators they never would have started to build a new multi-billion-dollar nuclear power plant (which the government is paying $8 billion) if they knew the company might be on the hook for certain potential cost overruns. They are responsible for $6.1 billion of the $14 billion project. Should their costs grow to $7 billion, Georgia Power wouldn’t earn below a 10.25 percent return on its investment from this project. The current rate of return on investment is set at 11.15 percent." Pretty good return in today’s economy…ratepayers and taxpayers paying for this “cheap” electricity, so the CEOs can make their million dollar bonuses.
http://www.ajc.com/business/georgia-power-trashes-regulatory-1002116.html
Things have not improved in Japan. The government is now admitting that it will take decades to deal with the reactors…just to bring them under control and cold shutdown. I doubt if they will ever be fully decommissioned.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/fukushima-cleanup-decades-japan-204043882.html
The full economic and social impacts are yet to be quantified and addressed.
Meanwhile, the transition is slowly moving along. Too bad our illustrious government, s so concerned with fiscal responsibility, job creation, and national security hasn’t pushed for more investment in this direction.
I always thought that national involved running the government for the “good of the people.” Shouldn’t the priority today be creating jobs, preserving our constitutional freedoms, working for the best interests of the “people?”
Power to the people! Viva la revolucion! Zito America! Spoken like a true Greek!
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