James Conca asks the question ... Can we be confident that we can handle our nuclear waste in America. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just made a small but incredibly important decision about nuclear waste that could finally get nuclear energy moving forward again. In response to a 2012 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals, the NRC approved a generic environmental impact statement that clears the way for storing spent nuclear fuel for a hundred years or more - NRC Ruling. New nuclear power plants can now be built without waiting for a final nuclear waste repository to be built. This is indeed a very good thing.
Nuclear power plants in the United States have safely stored spent nuclear fuel for decades in spent fuel pools of water and, later, in concrete dry casks. There has never been a problem. But the centerpiece of our nuclear waste program has always been the idea of a deep geologic repository as the final resting place for nuclear waste. Therefore, when the Yucca Mountain deep geologic repository project was essentially canned in 2009 - killed for similar political reasons it was born from, it was a blow to the country confidence in our ability to handle our spent nuclear fuel. We had never thought about storing this stuff forever, and most likely will not have to.
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Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-