“Electricity is but the fleeting byproduct from nuclear reactors. The actual product is forever deadly radioactive waste.”
—Michael Keegan, Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes
Highly radioactive wastes include solid irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies (euphemistically called “spent” or “used” by the industry that creates them) and liquid high-level radioactive wastes resulting from the “reprocessing” (extraction of fissile plutonium and uranium) of solid irradiated fuel rods. The vast majority of highly radioactive wastes generated in the U.S. come from commercial nuclear power reactors.
Irradiated nuclear fuel rods discharged from commercial nuclear power plants are highly radioactive, a million times more so than when they were first loaded into a reactor core as “fresh” fuel. If unshielded, irradiated nuclear fuel just removed from a reactor core could deliver a lethal dose of radiation to a person standing three feet away in just seconds. Even after decades of radioactive decay, a few minutes unshielded exposure could deliver a lethal dose. Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in “spent” fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other living beings for hundreds of thousands of years. Other radioisotopes will remain hazardous for millions of years. Thus, these wastes must be shielded for centuries and isolated from the living environment for hundreds of millenia.
Highly radioactive wastes are dangerous and deadly wherever they are, whether stored at reactor sites (indoors in pools or outdoors in dry casks); transported on the roads, rails, or waterways; or dumped on Native American lands out West.
NIRS strives to prevent the generation of highly radioactive wastes in the first place, and to isolate what’s already been generated from the living environment.
NIRS statement on NRC vote on radioactive waste "continued storage" rule and resumption of reactor licensing activities."For two years we had hoped that logic would prevail: but no such luck. An irrational, industry-dominated NRC has affirmed carte blanche to dirty energy corporations: ‘go ahead, produce as much highly radioactive waste as you want; tell us it is safe and we, the NRC, will believe you.’
Update
Amended petition for rulemaking first filed by 34 organizations February 18 calling for suspension of all licensing activity until NRC addresses new findings on nuclear reactor fuel pools fire risks and costs. Amended petition takes into account opinion from NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane, who dissented from NRC decision against the petition.
Update
NRC votes 4-1 to reject expedited movement of high-level radwaste from dangerous, overcrowded and poorly-protected fuel pools to dry casks. NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane writes stinging dissent. Take action here: Urge President Obama to support his chair and fill two upcoming open seats at NRC with strong nuclear safety advocates.
Update
Comments from 100 environmental/clean energy organizations in opposition to "consolidated interim storage" provisions in Senate Energy Committee discussion draft legislation on high-level radioactive waste. Press Release.
Update