Towards
the middle of August, and we're getting ready for the anticipated meeting with the
NRC on the completion of the physical decommissioning of the Humboldt Bay
nuke. Another few months of site
restoration, and it will be done…44 years after shutdown, 10 years of actual
decommissioning work, and $1.02 million of ratepayer’s money. The final phase is probably the most
important. What will become of the 6 dry
casks holding the high-level spent fuel that is now in storage on a bluff at the
plant site? How long will it stay there,
what are the risks associated leaving it there beyond the 50 year life
expectancy of the casks, what impacts from climate change, how much is all this
going to cost well into the future and who will pay for it, and, most
importantly today, what happens to the license and responsibility that PG&E
holds if it disappears after bankruptcy?
We’ll see!!!
The
nuclear dream is dead, and the industry still tries to hold on to its pattern
of sucking money from consumers and citizens.
There is no new reactor construction even on the drawing boards, aside
from the ongoing fiasco in Georgia, where the Vogel plant is about 60%
complete, 10 years behind schedule, $15billion over budget, and still receiving
federal subsidies in hopes of completion.
As I have said before, if this plant ever comes on line, its electricity
would be so expensive compared to the renewables available, that it would have
to be subsidized by taxpayer money. The
dream of the new generation of Small Modular Reactors is not going to happen
because of economics, and the dream of recycling fuel (reprocessing) in fast
plutonium reactors has long bead dead.
The old nukes are starting to close and fall by the wayside, victims of
the high costs compared to renewables, and again, the industry seeks subsidies
and bailouts to keep them online for a few more years.
Now,
the TRUE cost of nuclear power is beginning to see light: Decommissioning and
High and Low-level Waste Disposal.
The
complexity and real cost of decommissioning is beginning to be felt in
communities across the nation…in Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania…as we’ll as
California, where the San Onofre plant in Southern California and Diablo Canyon,
owned by PG&E, are front and center.
How much is all this going to cost, how long will it take, who will pay,
how safe are the communities, and the most important question...what’s to
become or the hundreds of dry casks storing the highly radioactive spent fuel.
As
I’ve said, there is no solution to dealing with this waste other than putting
it in dry casks and storing them in as safe an environment as possible. I refer you to the excellent article by
Allison MacFarlane, a past NRC commissioner, who’s credentials and opinions are
above reproach, and who basically says it all. https://thebulletin.org/2019/07/recycle-everything-america-except-your-nuclear-waste/?fbclid=IwAR0Bc_ZynF_Scc3JAxo0HgsxH25y35gITzcDrSHSpTkisqF3y3M5479FeIY
Solutions have gone
from shooting this stuff into the sun, burying it the deep ocean, reusing it in
new reactors, etc, to the latest scheme…deep bore hole disposal. All of these are absurd because we can never
afford to develop the technology and actually implement its deployment. We’re talking about 10,000+ huge casks,
weighing hundreds of thousands of tons, and which are highly
radioactive…dangerous emitting radioactivity and heat for of thousands of
years. Best to just leave the casks
we’ve developed today in place at the 30 or so reactor sites, pay the
$10-20million/yr to monitor and guard each site, and deal with the maintenance
and replacement of parts when they eventually wear out.
What
hasn’t come to the forefront yet is the other huge cost of safely disposing and
storing of the enormous volume or Low-Level radioactive wastes from the
decommissioning process. We do have lots
of room in Texas, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washington…where we can just dump this
stuff in trenches, and hope everything works out ok for the next 300 or so
years. There is a lot of money to be
made in decommissioning and waste disposal…and we, the ratepayers and taxpayers
now and in the future, are footing the bills.
Good ole cheap nuclear power!
Just another great hoax by the powers that be.
Here
are some current interesting reads, if you are so inclined:
