The so-called nuclear waste problem is a bunch of bullshit perpetrated by liberals with an intransigent anti-industrial agenda.
Nuclear power plants produce over 20% of the U.S. electricity demand (80% in France- ever wonder why their foreign policy is so much more independent of energy considerations than ours ?). These plants produce radioactive waste. Who gives a shit?
This waste is "long-lived"- radioactive emissions decrease by a factor of ten for every seven years the stuff ages. Did you ever ask yourself how long the chemical waste from alternative sources of electricity (like coal) lasts? Mercury, arsenic,etc? It NEVER goes away. Chemicals are forever. Even if the stuff is not emitted into the air as currently is the practice, it goes into some solid waste stream that has to be buried on land (where it can be leached out by rain) or buried in the sea, or whatever.
Nuclear waste is VERY SMALL in quantity. A coal fired plant produces thousands of tons (hundreds or railroad cars) of (slightly radioactive) chemically contaminated ash every year. This shit has to go somewhere. Currently most of it goes into the ocean.
A nuclear plant producing the same amount of electricity produces less than one truckload of highly radioactive waste per year. Disposal is in fact MUCH LESS of a problem for the nuclear waste. Bury it in Yucca Mountain and forget about it.
The statements in the cited report about how delay in finding a permanent repository for spent fuel waste is good are pure horseshit. Would you rather have this highly radioactive shit sitting in 120 parking lots around the country (expanded fuel storage sites at nuclear plant sites are typcially located in their parking lots) or buried 1000 meters underground in a rock mountain like Yucca? This is a no-brainer, and the opponents of Yucca Mountain are a blend of ignoramuses, political opportunists, and traitors.
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The so-called nuclear waste problem is a bunch of bullshit perpetrated by liberals with an intransigent anti-industrial agenda. Nuclear power plants produce over 20% of the U.S. electricity demand (80% in France- ever wonder why their foreign policy is so much more independent of energy considerations than ours ?). These plants produce radioactive waste. Who gives a shit? This waste is "long-lived"- radioactive emissions decrease by a factor of ten for every seven years the stuff ages. Did you ever ask yourself how long the chemical waste from alternative sources of electricity (like coal) lasts? Mercury, arsenic,etc? It NEVER goes away. Chemicals are forever. Even if the stuff is not emitted into the air as currently is the practice, it goes into some solid waste stream that has to be buried on land (where it can be leached out by rain) or buried in the sea, or whatever. Nuclear waste is VERY SMALL in quantity. A coal fired plant produces thousands of tons (hundreds or railroad cars) of (slightly radioactive) chemically contaminated ash every year. This shit has to go somewhere. Currently most of it goes into the ocean. A nuclear plant producing the same amount of electricity produces less than one truckload of highly radioactive waste per year. Disposal is in fact MUCH LESS of a problem for the nuclear waste. Bury it in Yucca Mountain and forget about it. The statements in the cited report about how delay in finding a permanent repository for spent fuel waste is good are pure horseshit. Would you rather have this highly radioactive shit sitting in 120 parking lots around the country (expanded fuel storage sites at nuclear plant sites are typcially located in their parking lots) or buried 1000 meters underground in a rock mountain like Yucca? This is a no-brainer, and the opponents of Yucca Mountain are a blend of ignoramuses, political opportunists, and traitors.