A new analysis released last night reported that a little-noted
surge in the re-licensing of nuclear reactors over the past four
years will add some 9,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear
waste to the nation's inventory. This will prolong storage
problems through the middle of the century at reactor sites
across the U.S.
Compiled from Department of Energy (DOE) figures by the
Environmental Working Group (EWG) Action Fund, the analysis
shows that in the wake of the 2002 Senate vote to approve the
Yucca Mountain dumpsite in Nevada, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has quietly approved 26 reactor operating
extensions--24 of them for another 20 years.
Another 18 reactors have renewal applications pending. No
request to date has been denied. According to the analysis, if
Yucca Mountain opens on its scheduled date, its storage space
will already be fully claimed. An additional 9,000 tons of
nuclear waste will be waiting to come to Yucca and still more
will pile up at 79 sites in 35 states.
Communities near each of the reactors were the subject of
aggressive public relations activities by DOE and the nuclear
power industry, implying that the Yucca Mountain dumpsite would
rid them of their waste problem. Unless Congress acts to expand
the Yucca site, the wave of relicensing means that most of these
79 communities will see more waste sitting on their sites for
decades more.
The situation contradicts a DOE press release of May 8, 2002,
when Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said "America's...homeland
security, as well as environmental protection is well served by
siting a single nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain,
rather than having nuclear waste stranded in temporary storage
locations at 131 sites in 39 states."
Likewise, DOE spokesman Joe Davis was quoted in the June 11,
2002 Chicago Tribune as saying "You can't have nuclear waste in
Illinois and 38 other states where it's stored temporarily above
ground next to schools, rivers, lakes and downtown metropolitan
areas. It's just not the smart thing to do in the interest of
national security and environmental protection."
The EWG Action Fund analysis calculates that shipping the extra
waste to Yucca will require either 6,000 more truck shipments or
1,050 train shipments through communities in Nevada.
Said EWG Action Fund chief scientist Richard Wiles: "This
analysis confirms what we suspected, but what the public was
never told--that Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site is really a
nuclear expansion program in disguise."
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SOURCES:
"Marks the Spot," EWG analysis, Oct. 21, 2004.
