NUCLEAR UPDATE during the pandemic
As most of the world is in turmoil and a great variety of
businesses and industries look to evolve and adapt to the uncertain future,
life goes on in those many essential services.
The recent dramatic changes in energy use demonstrates that major shifts
in supply and demand can happen very quickly, either by choice or through
unforeseen factors. The recent over-drilling
for oil coupled by a sharp drop in demand and use has shown not only the
vulnerable complexity of artificial price structures; but also a significant
decrease in air pollution, which will be a driving force in our future attempts
to deal with climate change as we rebuild our societies. The continued decline of coal due to cheaper
renewables continues here and across the globe.
That, too, is encouraging. The
nuclear industry continues to drain our dollars, this time not for energy
production, but for costly shutdowns, decommissioning, and waste
management. The current administration
still subsidizes the unattainable myth of cheaper and safer small modular
reactors, the boondoggle of fusion power, and even the expansion of uranium
mining on public lands. The fight for
money goes on!
Here in California, we are still bumbling through the
bankruptcy of PG&E, and the impacts that it is having and will continue to
have on our high electricity and gas prices. The future of the Diablo Canyon
nuclear complex is very unclear as to when it will shut down, will PG&E
sell the license, when decommissioning will actually begin, how long will it
take, and most importantly, how much will it cost and who will pay for it. There is also the unsolved dilemma of the
high-level spent fuel, the hundreds of dry casks to be stored on site, and the
unknown impacts of climate change, earthquakes, etc. Similar issues are facing
the San Onofre units, and the shutdown of Indian Point unit 2 in New York, with
unit 3 to soon follow. Other cleanups
continue at a handful of shuttered plants, as well as difficult and costly cleanup
at the many military and industrial facilities throughout the nation.
The future does not bode well for the supply side of the
nuclear industry. If we remember back to
around 2005, when the “nuclear renaissance” was put forth by the Bush
Administration, guaranteeing subsidies for construction of new plants that were
then deemed to be necessary, and could be built on time and on budget.. Out of the 30+ plans that were submitted, 5
units were chosen. One in Texas never
broke ground, the two units in South Carolina were abandoned after being about
50% completed and billions of dollars over budget, leaving the two Vogle units
in Georgia currently still in process.
Fifteen years later, and at a current estimated cost of $25 billion (up
from the original $8 billion) and still only 60% constructed, here is another
glitch. The foundation of unit 1 is
sinking!!!!! Read the article below…mindboggling!!!! The rest of the nuclear industry continues to
suck up taxpayer dollars for the development of small modular reactors which
supposedly will be built by the hundreds to provide cheap electricity. That will not happen…it is the same myth/hoax
the industry has plied us with for over half a century. Those reactors suffer with not only their costs,
but the main issue not addressed, which is the creation, management, and disposal
of all the high-level and low-level nuclear wastes that are produced through
the vast infrastructure and supply chain.
Low-level wastes are currently disposed of in a handful of
waste dumps in Utah, Texas, Idaho, and Nevada.
The nuclear industry is currently optimistic about the storage of high-level
spent fuel, with a couple of companies taking the lead. The biggest is Holtec, a private company that
back in the early 2000’s just manufactured dry casks. Humboldt Bay bought 6 of these, and the spent
fuel from the decommissioned reactor is encased in these huge cannisters in a
facility located on Humboldt Bay. At the
time, the casks were rated to last about 40 years, the idea being that they
would eventually go to Yucca Mountain for permanent disposal. Politics aside, that is not going to happen,
since the geology of that repository is unsuitable for containment of the
wastes for a minimum of 10,000 years.
Holtec has almost cornered the market today for dry casks (some 15,000
at $1million/cask will eventually be needed) and has ventured out into the full
range of decommissioning business. They
have bought up licenses from utilities with shut down plants, and are making
money in their dismantlement and low-level waste disposal. Their latest attempt is currently in process
to buy Indian Point. I would not be
surprised if they try for Diablo Canyon!
But the real clincher is their attempt to receive approval from the
various federal and state agencies to build a facility in southern New Mexico,
which would accept dry casks from all over the US, and place them on a very
large pad out in the desert. This
concept, called Monitored Retrievable Storage, was proposed about 30 years ago
for a site in Utah, but was dismissed as a potential environmental, economic,
technological, military, etc. disaster.
Picture thousands of casks concentrated out in the open…for how
long? Transportation issues—getting them
there, eventually shipping them to a permanent place? What is the time frame - how long will the
cask survive, how will they be repackaged, monitored, safeguarded from natural
and terrorist attacks??? How much will
all this cost, who will pay…all this is great for Holtec! They can be in
position to control the whole decommissioning process…dismantle the plants, use
their products to transport and store both high and low-level wastes, and have
citizens and ratepayers foot the bill. This
will be a booming business over the next 50 years.
In the very near future we will be forced to re-examining all
our energy systems. The old school, big
money utilities, large scale centralized power plants and the grid, the
incredible impacts on air, water, land, and public health will all be in the
forefront as we seriously address climate change, and embrace the cheaper (in
so many ways) and sustainability of small scale local microgrids and the
continued development of solar, wind, and other renewables, and the coming
surge of electricity storage. As a peer
of mine once said, we are transitioning from a hunter-gatherer society (keep
your hands off of that oil…I found it…it’s mine) to energy farmers, capturing
the solar energy available to us in so many forms, and learning to manage and
store it as nature did for us over the millions of years. At the forefront is an amazing new economy
with jobs, lower costs in every aspect, and a verdant sustainable future. It is just common sense, but will depend on changing
the current politics of greed and capitalism. Let the sun shine.!!!!!
