Future of America's Nuclear Power Plants

[bananas]

1. Nuclear waste has to be contained for a million years

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x303779

“Danger: Radioactive Waste”: A Message in a Bottle to Last… a Million Years (French Waste Agency)

"For long-lived waste such as that produced through reprocessing, we need to demonstrate it will be secure for millions of years."

"A million years should not be viewed as a definitive statement by the French Nuclear Safety Agency (NSA) on what is acceptable because, really, the timeline could extend much further"

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]http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=201750&mesg_id=201990

31. No, it wasn't a "smokescreen".

The EPA wanted a 10,000 year standard and wouldn't change it until they were ordered to by a court in one of the lawsuits over Yucca Mountain. This Slate article has links to the NAS report and the court order: http://www.slate.com/id/2212792

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x142758

The Externalities of Nuclear Power: First, Assume We Have a Can Opener . . .

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While the impacts of global warming are described as “intergenerational,” the impacts of the nuclear waste cycle are better described as inter-civilizational.<2> Nuclear fuel wastes remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands to as much as a million years.<3> By contrast, recorded human history goes back only about 5,000 years, and human civilization is only about 10,000 years old. Globally, none of the generators of nuclear fuel waste have successfully implemented any permanent disposal option for nuclear waste, leaving this externality of nuclear energy production as a problem for future generations, or, more likely, for future civilizations. Put simply, the nuclear industry, with government complicity, has transferred and deferred the most expensive part of the cost of the nuclear fuel cycle to future generations and civilizations unknown.

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