Kevin Kamps: Atomic waste problem far from solved

Kevin Kamps  —  8/22/2008 5:33 am

Dear Editor:

Wisconsin's law banning new atomic reactors asks a common sense question: Is the radioactive waste problem yet solved? Twenty-five years after enactment, the answer is a resounding no.

The illusion of a solution to the radioactive waste problem ndsh burying it at Yucca Mountain, Nev., -- is fading fast. The proposed dump, chosen for political, not scientific, reasons, is blatantly unsuitable. Its geology is fractured by earthquakes. Thirty-two active fault lines are nearby, including two that intersect the proposed dump site. If radioactive waste were ever buried there, it would leak massively into the groundwater below. That aquifer feeds a farming community 20 miles downstream, which exports dairy products up and down the West Coast. Got Milk? Got radioactive contamination in your milk?

For these reasons, Barack Obama has pledged, if elected, to withdraw the Yucca dump's license application. Even John McCain, who has consistently voted in favor of the dump, has backpedaled on the idea of dumping nuke waste in Nevada.

Meanwhile, forever-deadly high-level radioactive wastes continue to pile up on Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shore at Point Beach and Kewaunee. Point Beach has already run out of indoor storage space for irradiated nuclear fuel, so has turned to outdoor concrete and steel silos. Kewaunee is not far behind. These casks, not designed to withstand terrorist attack, are stored in the open air, exposed to the elements and thus eventual degradation. Wisconsin had better safeguard the radioactive wastes it already has, rather than even think about making more at a new atomic reactor.

Kevin Kamps

Beyond Nuclear

Takoma Park, Md.

Kevin Kamps  —  8/22/2008 5:33 am