Obama opposition to nuclear waste site questioned

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Obama opposition to nuclear waste site questioned

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Senate are demanding the Obama administration provide scientific and legal evidence to support its decision not to store nuclear waste at the long-planned Yucca Mountain depository in Nevada.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu testified at a congressional hearing in March that Yucca Mountain was no longer an option for holding radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and weapons complex sites around the country, repeating the position of President Barack Obama.

Republican senators want to know why Chu is against Yucca Mountain, given dozens of studies that show disposing of nuclear waste deep underground is the safest approach and the government has already spent billions of dollars to get the site ready.

"Given this history, President Obama's memoranda that science will guide public policy and his commitment to an unprecedented level of openness, we find it difficult to reconcile your statement that Yucca Mountain is 'not an option' made after only six weeks in office," the lawmakers said in a letter to Chu on Wednesday.

"Have you discovered, in a few short weeks, research that discredits the scientific work" that supports Yucca Mountain, they asked.

The lawmakers said they want a better understanding of Chu's decision making, including the list of scientists who briefed him on the technical and scientific aspects of Yucca as a storage site.

Instead of Yucca, Chu has said the department will establish a "blue ribbon" panel to develop a comprehensive plan this year to handle the disposal of radioactive wastes.

The department will also consider solidifying liquid radioactive waste that is currently held at 121 locations across the nation, as the government works to develop a permanent solution, Chu has said.

The nuclear industry claims utilities would be reluctant to build more reactors if there is not a central depository to store spent nuclear fuel.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received 17 applications to build 26 new U.S. nuclear reactors and could get five more applications for seven reactors by the end of next year. Each new reactor is expected to cost $6 billion to $8 billion, including financing costs.

The NRC expects electricity will likely be generated by the next new nuclear power reactor in 2016.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/behindTheSce...E53T7MH20090430

[Niels Bohr 72]

Nuclear waste needs to be constantly monitored, and routine maintenance on the vessel used to encased the burned up uranium be done. Just like the nuclear warhead stockpile. The encasement ages overtime similar to the nuclear warheads that are piled up.

It'll be a garunteed job for all eternity to monitor that site. It's tough to do.

There's a bacteria that actually reduce radiation material which is highly effective than just storing it.

A harmless soil bacterium, which can survive high-level exposures to gamma radiation, is being developed to clean up land contaminated with radioactive waste, experts heard today (Wednesday 12 September 2001) at the bi-annual meeting of the Society of General Microbiology at the University of East Anglia.

US government researcher Dr. Michael Daly of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland says "Until recently there have been no effective biological methods to treat highly radioactive contaminated sites because most known species are very radiation sensitive. We have found that the harmless soil bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans can survive a dose of 17,000 Gy, as well as grow in the presence of chronic high-level radiation (60 Gy/hour). For comparison, exposure to just 5-10 Gy is lethal to a human."

Now the US scientists have modified D. radiodurans to contain genes used to remove heavy metals from soil and break down toxic chemicals like toluene to carbon dioxide and water. The bacterium was modified successfully to express an assortment of toxin-degrading genes from other organisms using a combination of traditional genetic engineering and recent genomic information.

Immense volumes of radioactive waste, generated from the production of nuclear weapons in the USA, were disposed directly to the ground. This led to an amount of contaminated land equivalent to 1 metre of soil covering 10,000 football fields. A multitude of chemicals can be detected in the soil including radionuclides such as Uranium; heavy metals like mercury and lead; and toxic organic compounds, for example toluene.

Dr Michael Daly says “Deinococcus is a highly versatile biological system which will likely be used in the future to stabilize environments polluted by a wide range of toxic radioactive and organic chemicals and prevent them from escaping into the environment. This method could provide an effective alternative to conventional soil treatments such as incineration, landfill or soil-washing using large amounts of solvent.”

◊A public release from Society for General Microbiology in September 2001, viewed from Biology-Online.org.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Handy little buggers, like the ones that eat oil spills.