Dr. Conca reports that instead of the old top-down decision-making, DOE is going to implement a consent-based strategy. This means that instead of ordering some individual state like Nevada to take all of the high-level nuclear waste, whether they like it or not, DOE instead will ask who would like to take this waste? It will create fantastic jobs, will bring huge economic benefit to the region and, contrary to popular opinion, it is safer than putting in a Mall. This new strategy comes from the failure of our previous disposal program that ended in the suspension of the Yucca Mountain site, the proposed nuclear repository that came out of the 1987 Amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. This suspension was not a bad thing since the Yucca Mountain tuff really is such a lousy rock that the level of re-engineering required would make the project way too expensive, about $100 billion too expensive. In an earlier related action, Energy Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz announced that DOE is moving forward with planning for a repository for defense-generated nuclear waste. Concurrently, DOE is also taking steps toward the siting and licensing of a larger interim storage facility for commercial spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, using a phased, adaptive and also consent-based approach. And now DOE is funding a study to drill a borehole more than 3 miles deep into the Earth crust below North Dakota to test a disposal method for radioactive waste called Deep Borehole Disposal. In this scenario, waste would be placed in the lower mile of the borehole in crystalline rock that would isolate the waste from the surface and shallow environments. The borehole would then be filled up with some special layers, including asphalt, bentonite, concrete and crushed rock that will isolate the waste for geologic time. The borehole would need a diameter of at least 17 inches at the bottom for placing containers, and would be lined with steel casing.
Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/01/21/doe-tries-to-change-the-rules-on-nuclear-waste-disposal/#6c4d6b7b6dd2
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