Time to act on nuclear waste

The nuclear nightmare in Japan, now rated at the top level of an international nuclear disaster scale, reminds us that reactors themselves aren't the only danger. Used nuclear fuel can also spew radioactivity. But in this country, we have more than 60,000 tons of it lying around, with no politically viable long-term way to store it safely. That gridlock has to end.

The basic physics problem is this: To sustain the nuclear fission that makes the heat to create electricity, neutrons have to whiz around the reactor at the right speeds. That process creates byproducts that absorb neutrons, which eventually makes the fuel less productive. But the spent fuel retains its radioactivity and most of its energy potential.

One solution to the problem is reprocessing, to produce usable fuel and reduce the volume of waste. But President Jimmy Carter blocked it in 1977, fearing that it would lead to nuclear weapons proliferation. Other countries are reprocessing, and some here are now calling for a fresh look at reprocessing. That would be a heavy lift politically.

Another key approach is permanent storage underground. Toward that end, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. To fund development of a storage site, ratepayers of nuclear utilities have been paying a fee based on the power the plants generate.

The burial site was to have been Nevada's Yucca Mountain. But after the expenditure of billions from the waste fund to get it ready, that option is now dead. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat who represents Nevada, killed it -- with a mighty assist from President Barack Obama.

The problem with a central repository like Yucca or any other is that it's central -- which means the waste has to travel to get there. People don't know a lot about the science of nuclear waste, but they do know this: They don't want thousands of tons of it speeding past them in trucks and trains, en route to a desert tomb.

So that leaves us with a lot of waste, about 75 percent of it sitting in spent fuel pools at the plants. If something interrupts the power that keeps the water in the pools cool, that fuel heats up disastrously -- as it did at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. The other 25 percent is in dry casks -- steel and concrete coffins at the plants that can safely keep the spent fuel for a century. But those casks eventually need to be put into a central repository for the long haul: thousands of years.

The nuclear industry has been paying the cost of moving waste to dry casks. But it's also suing the federal government to recover the costs, arguing in essence that Washington is not keeping its 1982 promise to provide a permanent storage site if the industry pays the fee. The government has had to pay out about $1 billion, including legal fees. A less expensive answer would be to change the waste policy law, so the fund can legally pay for dry cask storage.

Everyone is waiting for a blue ribbon commission's ideas on nuclear waste. Meanwhile, spent fuel is building up, at plants such as Indian Point on the Hudson River and Millstone, in Connecticut. Both have some dry casks, but the bulk of their spent fuel is in pools. The costs of the lawsuits are mounting, and Congress seems to be taking as long to act as it takes nuclear waste to become safe -- forever. hN