If Reid, Obama Kill Yucca Mountain, Where Will Nuclear Waste Go? Think Fusion
Harry Reid declares Nevada nuclear containment facility dead. Now what? Try fusion
Using the fusion process to destroy high-level radioactive waste has at least three advantages: The most dangerous bomb-making materials, like plutonium, are burned rather than stored, thereby minimizing the proliferation risk; the process dramatically reduces (by 90% or more) the volume of waste produced by fission reactors, thereby shrinking the size (and thus, the cost) of any long-term repository; and finally, it cuts the amount of time that the final waste products are dangerously radioactive from millennia to decades.
However, even if the U.S. pursues fusion-fission hybrids, results are at least a decade away. And regardless of whether it works or fails, the U.S. is going to need a secure location for the long-term storage of its nuclear waste. Chu's now talking about the need for "several regional areas" to take the waste. Of course, identifying and licensing those repositories will likely take a decade or more. And the fight over them will surely take even longer—just ask Harry Reid.
- Is a global treaty the right way to handle climate change?
- Check out our political cartoons.
Reader Comments
Yuk, Yuk, Yucca
I'll bet a lot of Reeds buddies made a huge profit off the Yucca project. His TRAIN needs to be DERAILED!!!
EVERBODY'S GOT A WORRY...
If we can't bury that crap inside a mountain - where can we get rid of it? We tried the ocean, but then that whole Godzilla thing came up.
Bunch of NIMBYS.... Come on Nevadans "Cowboy Up!"... Oh wait... Never mind... A bunch of panty waists from the coasts moved into cheap homes in Vegas and elected Green/Socialist Reid. Same thing is happening to a lot of formerly manly states.
I bet John Wayne is pissed...
Agreed: Yucca Mountain was Never a Viable Program
Mr Bryce should promote relocating the Nuclear Waste Repository to New Jersey or Long island for his secure long term storage instead of Nevada, since he is so fond of nuclear power and storage of its byproducts.
Nuclear power is a good option to be developed but it going to be in your backyard, Mr Bryce. The DOE has yet to clean up the mess at Hanford, the country's first nuclear plant and storage site. With nuclear waste in your turf will make you will realize you want to make sure its done safely. Exporting garbage, especially nuclear waste, is the stuff of crime syndicates and Nevada is not a third world dumping ground.
advertisement
