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New Mexico Nuclear Accident Ranks Among the Costliest In US History (latimes.com)
mdsolar quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: When a drum containing radioactive waste blew up in an underground nuclear dump in New Mexico two years ago, the Energy Department rushed to quell concerns in the Carlsbad desert community and quickly reported progress on resuming operations. The early federal statements gave no hint that the blast had caused massive long-term damage to the dump, a facility crucial to the nuclear weapons cleanup program that spans the nation, or that it would jeopardize the Energy Department's credibility in dealing with the tricky problem of radioactive waste. But the explosion ranks among the costliest nuclear accidents in U.S. history, according to a Times analysis. The long-term cost of the mishap could top $2 billion, an amount roughly in the range of the cleanup after the 1979 partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The Feb. 14, 2014, accident is also complicating cleanup programs at about a dozen current and former nuclear weapons sites across the U.S. Thousands of tons of radioactive waste that were headed for the dump are backed up in Idaho, Washington, New Mexico and elsewhere, state officials said in interviews. "The direct cost of the cleanup is now $640 million, based on a contract modification made last month with Nuclear Waste Partnership that increased the cost from $1.3 billion to nearly $2 billion," reports Los Angeles Times. "The cost-plus contract leaves open the possibility of even higher costs as repairs continue. And it does not include the complete replacement of the contaminated ventilation system or any future costs of operating the mine longer than originally planned."
You can say what you will about it's existence, but when the drum blew, the walls collapsed on top of it, severely limiting the spread of radioactivity.
while we may not be able to use the facility any more, this is a structural problem, not a design one. The facility worked to specification in the event. The problem was the event took place in a connecting tunnel and not a storage room.
also the amount of radioactivity that leaked was less than than you get from sleeping next to an infant. They didn't mention that.
Because someone has to pay for the mishap. And that is in this case the feds.
So, essentially a $2 billion subvention for nuclear technology.
From the link "The problem was traced to material — actual kitty litter — used to blot up liquids in sealed drums. Lab officials had decided to substitute an organic material for a mineral one." Tim S.
still far safer, cleaner, more efficient and better than coal, gas, wind, solar etc etc.
It should be noted that the waste was from nuclear weapons production not nuclear power. It is disingenuous to compare them because they are not the same.
To be fair it looks like we are going to subsidize any type of energy production though; by allowing climate change we are collectively giving a much bigger hand out to the fossil fuel industry. Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying let people off the hook for actually causing problems like this or trying to be dismissive of the actual problems, but realistically, since it looks like we're already dealing with the externalities of energy, $2 billion dollars is still less than we will be paying for fossil fuels over the long run. It still sucks, but before anyone jumps on the inevitable anti-nuclear soapbox, don't forget that we're all subsidizing energy in one way or another.
This has nothing to do with energy, this is waste from nuclear weapons production.
Enigma
> still far safer, cleaner, more efficient and better than coal, gas, wind, solar etc etc.
This got voted -1, but statistically, nuclear actually does cause the lowest number of deaths per MWh energy produced.
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2...
There really is nothing safer than nuclear, and the facts back this up. Still, when did /. moderation ever have anything to do with reality?
Because they think that the plutonium produced(and mostly consumed if those reactors are allowed to keep working instead of being shut down to harvest it) will spontaneously get up and walk away.
Specifically it's to keep countries like North Korea and Pakistan from getting nuclear weapons.
Oopsie. Looks like that worked out, didn't it...
The U.S. is the only major nuclear power that doesn't reprocess spent fuel; Russia does, Japan does, France does, Great Britain did, and, until Germany recently decided to no longer be a nuclear power, they had France process their for them. Thank Jimmy Carter for the executive order; we have a nice, shiny new reprocessing plant that's been mothballed.
This is not from nuclear energy. This waste is from our nuclear weapons program, so bill it against the DOD.
He never left. If you follow the submissions you would see him on a regular basis. Almost all of his are quickly voted down, but once in a while the editors let one through to stir the pot..
Those bacteria don't do any actual cleaning. They just help contain. The bacteria are able to consume molecules that contain nuclear elements and change the molecular structure of the radioactive waste. This change ends up preventing the waste from being dissolved in ground water, and thus preventing it from spreading around in ground water. So basically, they are able to absorb leaking waste.
Life is a chemical process. There is no life that can break down matter at the sub-atomic level. Except Godzilla!
Yeah, except nowhere in this article is anything about nuclear power actually mentioned. This article, and storage facility, are for the waste coming from nuclear weapons production and research.
I guess that's "nuclear energy" in a way, but commercial nuclear energy generation has vastly different waste outputs, with completely different handling procedures. For example, you usually don't have liquid radioactive waste that needs blotting up and stored in barrels, because you haven't dissolved the nuclear material in nitric acid in order to extract the remaining plutonium and uranium from all the other crap you don't want.
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