Escape from Yucca Mountain

 

 

So what are we doing with all this poison? What is the solution?

Almost three years ago, I addressed the issue of Yucca Mountain. It is one of the most famous mountains in America - that is, for those who have heard of it. And what is Yucca Mountain? Simply put, it was going to be the panacea for America's long term storage problem of spent uranium fuel. Was seems to be the operative word.

In a fantasy world, there will be a source of electricity which is clean, abundant and produces a very toxic byproduct whose poisonous effects will last as long as 24,000 years. Wait a minute - that is not a fantasy world - that is our world! And I am talking about nuclear power.

In the United States, we currently have sixty-five nuclear power plants producing a total of 0.806 Tera Watt Hours of electricity. This is about 20% of the total amount of electrical energy produced in the United States. That is the good news. However, each one of these plants create one terrible externality of production - highly toxic and radioactive spent uranium power rods. That is the very bad news. What makes this really bad is with all the brain power we have in our country, we have not yet come up with a permanent solution to this problem. Actually, we have - I mean we did.

 

It all started in 1982. Congress passes the Nuclear Waste Policy Act requiring the establishment of a deep geologic repository for nuclear waste storage and isolation. Without going into much of the legislative back and forth which followed, suffice it to say that Yucca Mountain was ultimately chosen as the site for this toxic storage.

Consider the following with our nuclear storage:

• As of 2009, we have spent $7.7 billion dollars on the evaluations and preparation of the Yucca site facility.
• Electricity consumers have contributed $30 billion for the disposal of civilian spent fuel.
• Courts have affirmed the federal government’s obligation to dispose of spent fuel. If Yucca Mountain is not online by 2020, taxpayers will face up to $11 billion in liability costs as the Department of Energy will begin accepting used fuel and nuclear waste. Also, after 2020 if Yucca Mountain is still not online, it will cost an additional $500 million with each passing year of delay in depositing spent fuels in permanent storage.
• The nuclear industry has nearly 60,000 metric tons of civilian used fuel awaiting disposal in addition to 20,500 metric tons of defense waste stored at Department of Energy facilities.
• The storage facilities at the power plant sites were always meant to be temporary. When a rod first comes out of the reactor it is very hot - too hot to transport. These rods are stored in huge vats filled with water to cool them down. Once the temperature is cool enough to transport (it can take up to three years), the rods were to be moved to a more permanent location.

Where are we today? Besides deciding to shutter as many coal fired power plants as possible, this Administration has decided to shelve the Yucca Mountain plan. Way too hard. And what then is the unintended consequence? I mean besides the boatload of costs the electricity users will have to absorb. Safety. Rather than having one central location which can be protected and monitored, we now have tubs of highly lethal poison spread all over the country.

 

Recently I have criticized our "hippy dippy" Energy Secretary (Dr. Moniz). A friend of mine took me to task for doing so. He said Dr. Moniz was probably smarter than myself and a bunch of other people put together. My response was simple. I judge people (professionally) by the product they produce. I told my friend to send me the link to our current energy policy so I could look at it. If I am wrong, I will admit it. Still waiting to see the link. Still waiting to see the energy policy. All I am seeing is ever increasing electric bills.