nuclear waste

The (VERY) Uneasy Case for Nuclear Power

Anyone who is serious about combatting climate change must be serious about considering nuclear power.  Fission generation produces virtually no emissions, and given the difficulties we will have in reducing the world’s carbon footprint, to ignore nuclear power is to my mind irresponsible. But “considering” nuclear power hardly means adopting it.  Nuclear power plants are …

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Japan Update

Not good, on a number of fronts: The official death count is now past 7000, as reported by CNN. Another ten thousand are still missing. The NY Times reports that the Japanese government has finally raised the level of the event to 5, the same level as Three Mile Island. Here’s a really scary statement …

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Yucca Mountain dispute goes to Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The tangled saga of the proposed high-level nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain is going to have at least one more chapter. In June 2008, President Bush’s Department of Energy filed an application for a license to construct a high-level repository at Yucca Mountain. In March 2010, President Obama’s Energy Department sought to withdraw …

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Going Nuclear in Finland

A new film explores how Finland is planning to dispose of its nuclear waste. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXif1MThJ6k]

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If not at Yucca Mountain, then where?

Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Last August, Dan announced “The Death of Yucca Mountain,” pointing to a news story in which Senator Harry Reid ( D – Nev.) declared that he had dealt a fatal blow to plans to store high-level radioactive waste in a repository there. The Department of Energy sought to pull the plug on …

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New Approaches to Analyzing Uncertainty

New analytic methods are emerging for dealing with tough problems that are not amenable to conventional risk analysis. These techniques also shed light on the precautionary principle.

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Giving Nuclear Power a Blue Ribbon

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama did not equivocate on the topic of nuclear power.  He talked about the importance of green jobs, and then added,  “But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation …

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The Death of Yucca Mountain

Over twenty years ago, the Supreme Court accepted the Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s assurances that it would find a safe method for long-term disposal of nuclear waste.  Consequently, the NRC was allowed to assign a zero to the risk of any radioactive discharge.  As it turns out, this was an empty promise.  The solution that the …

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The Great Yucca Mountain Debacle

Over twenty years ago, the Supreme Court accepted the Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s assurances that it would find a safe method for long-term disposal of nuclear waste.  Consequently, the NRC was allowed to assign a zero to the risk of any radioactive discharge.  As it turns out, this was an empty promise.  The solution that the …

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