Shift to dry storage sought for U.S. nuclear fuel

[phantom power]

In the U.S., more than 75% of the radioactive waste at the nation's 104 commercial nuclear reactors sits in pools, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The rest is in dry storage casks.

The pools were intended as temporary rest stops before transport to a central location for reprocessing or disposal. With no such sites available, the used rods, have been placed closer together than planned and largely left in the pools.

While the NRC permits such packing, the TVA is considering a change.

"We're likely to do more dry-cask storage now," TVA spokesman Ray Golden said. Critics, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, say the pools are vulnerable and that the NRC should require the transfer to dry storage casks made of concrete and steel when the waste rods are cool enough, not when pools are nearly full.

The nuclear industry has hoped the federal government would build a long-term repository inside Yucca Mountain in Nevada, where nuclear waste from around the country could be held for hundreds of thousands of years. But the plan has encountered strong opposition.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2011-04-11-nuclear-pools_N.htm

[kestrel91316]

1. Now THERE'S a solution. I'm sure those concrete and steel storage casks

will last the necessary 100,000 years.

:sarcasm:

[hunter]

2. Who could imagine this great pile of used tires would catch fire?

Huge tire fire in Maricopa capped with dirt

MARICOPA, Ariz. – Crews have capped a huge tire fire in Maricopa with tons of dirt, effectively smothering it.
by Catherine Holland
azfamily.com
Posted on April 12, 2011 at 6:28 AM

The fire broke out at about 7 p.m. Monday at Arizona Rubber Recycling. A 10,000-square-foot are of tires was burning, the huge flames sending thick, black plumes of smoke into the air.

Tire fires can often burn for several days. Fire crews can’t use water on such fires because the oil and chemicals in the tires that are known to cause cancer can leach into the groundwater.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Tire-fire-in-Maricopa-capped-with-dirt-119686774.html

(emphasis mine)

Removing used fuel from storage pools as soon as it is cool enough to handle is an obvious safety measure... So how are we doing, San Onofre, Diablo Canyon...???