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Nuclear Trashmen Profit From Unprecedented US Reactor Shutdowns
mdsolar sends this quote from Bloomberg:
"More than 50 years into the age of nuclear energy, one of the biggest growth opportunities may be junking old reactors. Entergy Corp. (ETR) said Aug. 27 it will close its 41-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in 2014, making the reactor the fifth unit in the U.S. marked for decommissioning within the past 12 months, a record annual total. Companies that specialize in razing nuclear plants and hauling away radioactive waste are poised to benefit. Disposal work is 'where companies are going to make their fortune,' Margaret Harding, an independent nuclear-industry consultant based in Wilmington, North Carolina, said in an phone interview. Contractors that are usually involved in building reactors ... 'are going to be looking very hard at the decommissioning side of it.' [T]he U.S. nuclear fleet of 104 units is shrinking, even as Southern Co. and Scana Corp. build two units each. ... During a reactor decommissioning, the plant operator transfers radioactive fuel rods to cooling pools and, ultimately, to so-called dry casks for storage. Workers clean contaminated surfaces by sandblasting, chemical sprays and hydrolasing, a process that involves high-pressure water blasts, according to King. 'You do get to a point that you need someone to come in that has the equipment and the technology to actually dismantle the components,' she said. 'That typically is hired out.'"
Is another man's gold.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Can you repeat that? I was busy marveling at how excellent a name "Nuclear Trashmen" would be for a punk band.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Have gnu, will travel.
... to the lowest bidder.
That stuff needs to be stored for a couple of thousand years. Long term it's actually much safer to rework it into fuel, use it, rework it some more, use it as fuel, and so on, until there's nothing left. Consequence of having started this party. But long term vision isn't something the USA brand Democratic Republic can be trusted with. And so they're buggering off early and stick future generations with an unpayable bill.
1. build reactor 2. decommision reactor 3. profit
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
I'm given to understand that the plants are never cleaned up. They're left to contaminate everything forever for profits. So there can't be anyone employed to do this work.
Nuclear plants have to be decommissioned? Just like the builders and designers said, and just like (supposedly) was budgeted for in advance? That's horrible!
It's the damn Greens, I tell you. Dirty hippies making corporations keep their promises are ruining America!
“Hey Folks, we’re the Nuclear Trashmen, we’re here on tour from Brooklyn, promoting our album release. This is our thirteenth show, first with this lineup. This is a song called half life.”
Ah... Electrical power too cheap to meter, offices on the Moon, colonies on Mars... How's the dream working out for ya?
One of the biggest problems with nuclear power, agreed on by proponents and critics alike, is that the currently-operating plants are older-generation designs, repaired and refurbished to run long past their expected lifetime.
The natural gas boom is putting these older-gen reactors out of business. When the cost goes back up and nuclear becomes profitable again, we'll get the chance to actually implement the newer designs.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
It appears that West Texas is the destination for some of the radioactive material.
Umm. I think you missed something somewhere. Yes it's dangerous, but if you don't leave it to a private company who will do it? A public one? Have you ever been to DMV? How about Social Security, Welfare, or CPS? Would you really trust THEM to do a better job. No no. I'll tell you how to get it done safely. Tell the contractor of the winning bid that the CEO himself has to be directly involved. At least that way if they screw it up the one who made the most money off of it has just as much skin in the game as anyone else.
Um... Who does extremely dangerous work today? The gov't? Who makes and manufactures almost all nuclear materials in the U.S. and designs safety processes and equipment?
I drank what? -- Socrates
People manage to build skyscrapers and bridges, and dig huge mines without a massive loss of life. The threat of OSHA fines and private lawsuits actually does put safety at the top of their priority list.
So which bogeyman is it that is shutting these down? Radiation scare, capitalism and greed, 'green marketing', or Cold War fallout?
Simple fact is, the US requires energy. A LOT OF ENERGY! And it can only come from a few sources at the moment. YES, there is a balance between build cost, operating cost, and possible harm to environment and people, but we should be looking at LONG TERM sustainable investments here. And we're not doing that! That requires a political and social will, that is presently absent in the USA.
A simple fact from the past 60 or so years of nuclear industrialization is this:
Can Nuclear power as an energy source work? YES! That's been proven. Does it have risks? Absolutely! Have we even scratched the surface of nuclear as a long-term energy source? NOT EVEN CLOSE!
Also, until the US starts rethinking how to minimize light pollution by an order of magnitude, waste energy really isn't even discussable yet.
Solar power -> molten salt -> steam.
Giant array of mirrors in the desert pointing at a tower. Molten salt stored at 500 F underground, enough to heat water and run normal steam turbines for 72 hours straight.
No radiation, no hauling in fuel, no coal mining, no fracking. It's easy and proven.
ZOMG OHNOES!!! The entire earth was created as a low level nuclear dump. Reality. What is the threshold for where low level stops scaring you? One bequerel? One trillionth of natural background? Just asking.
In this area they are known as radiation whores.
To be "crapped up" is to have radiation of some sort on you (which you just wash off in a special area).
I'm sure it came from having $hit on you and it stuck.
Different areas, different terms.
Is the proper long term solution.
It will get there anyway in a few billion years, as the Earth is enveloped in the outer layers of the expanding Red Giant our sun is to become. :)
The only issue with that plan is the eventual "Launch Failure", probably over an unfriendly country. :o
Shit goes downhill fast from there, regardless of intent. :(
The Nevada site is the best available site in the country; everything south of the Mason Dixon line will be abandoned in the next century due to Global Warming anyway. :)
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
So, there is no point in building a new reactor until the gas gets scarce and not much point in running the old reactors either. Sounds like Navy retirees can handle all the future regular work. So, going to school for nuclear power would be to study to be a nuclear sanitation engineer. How, exactly, do you get a lot of interest in designing better buggy whips in this situation? Bill Gates is enthusiastic, yes, but since when did Bill and "better" ever fit well together in a sentence?
Yes, in the USA there are plenty of regulations. In the USA, they usually are pretty effective. However, the energy plant industry is not the only industry working with materials that emit nuclear radiation. Most large scrap merchants actually have Geiger counters set up to pick out radio active materials coming in on their yards permanently. Scrap gets moved all over the planet and on a global scale, dozens of "misplaced" items get found yearly that have a radiation dose that is actually dangerous to people that get near it for a few hours or more.
Having perfect regulations is only part of the solution. The other part is getting all humans involved to actually follow the regulations in the entire chain. People make mistakes and bend the rules because it's less work if you don't do all those checks. Most often, this does not lead to things going wrong, but we all know how publicly published incidents at nuclear reactors happen. The same applies for waste handling and disposal. Apart from that, once you get to countries and/or individuals that don't really have all that much of a morale, they may choose to knowingly mess with the paperwork and sell radioactive scrap as normal steel, once they shred it to little bits and "diluted" it with non-radio active materials. There's a good reason for those geiger tellers at scrap merchants, it's a well known trick and it happens often enough to warrant this sort of safeguards.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Since nobody else seemed to ask
>80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
>life
is that the transmission lines, cooling, etc. are taken out first. Instead, they would be better to focus ONLY on the reactor, while moving the 'spent fuel' aside. Then by leaving the rest in place, it can be used for natural gas boiler, energy storage, perhaps geo-thermal, or even better would be small nuclear reactors that are designed to burn up the waste. Basically, better to keep the site going and making money, then it is to shut it down and turn it into a pure cost center.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.