Vera Eckert, a Germany based Reuters reporter, signals in her title that here comes another fear-mongering, misinformed, and anti-nuclear article. More than half a century after the first commercial nuclear plant went into operation in the U.S., the industry may finally be nearing a way to store - or dispose of? - radioactive waste underground permanently. She is actually saying that although we have known for years that one alternative for disposal in underground, many studies have demonstrated its feasibility and now need the politicians to decide that the time has come. But this is a form of disposal, not storage to use again. She claims that the world has 270,000 tonnes of used fuel stockpiled, much of it under water in ponds at nuclear power stations.
Placed in the proper perspective, if such used fuel were stacked appropriately, all the used fuel generated in the U.S. so far would only cover a single football field about 7 yards deep. She then adds fearful thoughts by adding a need of urgency for finding a permanent (then disposed) or storage solution - for later use of the material that can remain toxic - and there is the piece de resistance - for hundreds of thousands of years.... but so is gasoline, mercury, and lead, but for ever. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency says it is impossible to gauge the future costs of storage sites, because each country has geography - she means geology, not geography - that is different and there are no previous projects to serve as examples. Notice the loose language leaving reader to imagine the worst. Plus, many words, little substance.
Original Working URL: https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5N0Z42LM20150619?pageNumber=4&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
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