In 2015, I posted my review of Too Hot
to Touch, a 2013 book by William and Rosemarie Alley. William worked for the U.S. Geological
Survey, and he was involved in the search for somewhere to store more than
70,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods, and 20,000 canisters of military
waste. The challenging objective was to
store this extremely dangerous high level radioactive waste in a way that would
be absolutely safe for a million years.
The Yucca
Mountain site in Nevada was an isolated desert location. It was not perfect, but no place was
perfect. It was the best choice
possible, based on 25 years of research costing $10 billion. The repository was designed to be 1,000 feet (304
m) below the surface.
The Alleys wrote that fuel rods are used for about six years. Spent fuel rods remain very hot and highly
radioactive. For about five years, they
must be kept submerged in ponds, where cooled water constantly circulates. Eventually, the hot rods cool off, and can be
stored in airtight dry casks, which are much safer. Dry casks are made of steel and concrete. The concrete blocks radioactive emissions. Casks are designed to last maybe 50 years,
not a million.
Permanent storage requires underground geologic repositories
that will remain very dry forever, and not be disturbed by earthquakes or
terrorists. In 2022, more than 89,000
tons of spent fuel rods are stored in casks in many states. If we ever build a repository, all those
casks of extremely toxic waste will have to be hauled in from distant
locations, with no surprises, if possible.
The Alleys wrote that in 2011, about 75 percent of spent fuel
in the U.S. was stored in ponds. “Many
of these pools are full, with some containing four times the amount of spent
fuel that they were designed for.” If a
booboo happens, and hot rods are exposed to air, the embedded uranium pellets
can oxidize. If the rods ignite, massive
amounts of highly radioactive emissions can be released. This could result in many cancer deaths, and
cost billions of dollars. The meltdowns
at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima were triggered by overheated
fuel rods.
When the Alleys wrote in 2013, there were 440 nuke plants in
31 countries. At that time, no nation
had a permanent high-level waste storage facility in operation. In 2022, there are 449 plants. Guess how many nations are using geologic
repositories (zero). One in Finland
might open in 2023.
A Wikipedia article on Nuclear
Decommissioning described the aging reactors in the U.S. “As of 2017, most nuclear plants operating in
the United States were designed for a life of about 30 to 40 years and are
licensed to operate for 40 years by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. As of 2020, the average age
of these reactors was about 39 years.
Many plants are coming to the end of their licensing period and if their
licenses are not renewed, they must go through a decontamination and
decommissioning process.” Decommissioning
is very expensive, and can take many years.
Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. At that time, Yucca Mountain was the widely
supported location for our nuke waste repository. One crappy day, the Alleys were blindsided by
an unpleasant surprise. In March 2009, Obama’s
new Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, told a Senate hearing that “Yucca Mountain
was not an option.” In July 2009, the
license application was withdrawn, and all funding for the project was
cut. Game over.
Chu cited no issues, and offered no alternatives. The Alleys wrote, “Virtually all observers
attributed the decision to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain as political payoff
to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
Nevada was a swing state in the election, and Obama had pledged to kill
Yucca Mountain, if elected.” He needed
Reid in order to push his health care plans through. Republican Senators blasted Chu with sharp
questions about his hasty dumb decision.
In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president. Wikipedia
described his Yucca Mountain policies. “On
March 15, 2017, the Trump Administration announced it would request
Congressional approval for $120 million to restart licensing activity at the
Yucca Mountain Repository, with funding also to be used to create an interim
storage program. The project would
consolidate nuclear waste across the United States in Yucca Mountain, which had
been stockpiled in local locations since 2010.”
Then, he changed his mind.
“Although his administration had allocated money to the project, in
October 2018, President Donald Trump stated he opposed the use of Yucca Mountain
for dumping, saying he agreed with the people of Nevada.” “On May 20, 2020, Under Secretary of Energy
Mark W. Menezes testified in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee that Trump strongly opposes proceeding with Yucca Mountain
Repository.”
In November 2020, voters chose Joe Biden to be the next
president. Biden did not overturn Trump’s
policy. The Wikipedia article
continues. “In May 2021, Energy
Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that Yucca Mountain would not be part of the
Biden administration’s plans for nuclear-waste disposal. She anticipated announcing the department's
next steps in the coming months.”
A year later, in May 2022, an Associated
Press story reported that Granholm had not changed her mind. “The Energy Department is working to develop
a process to ask communities if they are interested in storing spent nuclear
fuel on an interim basis, both to make nuclear power a more sustainable option
and figure out what to do with the waste.
Granholm said it’s the best way to finally solve the issue. A plan to build a national storage facility
northwest of Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain has been mothballed because of staunch
opposition from most Nevada residents and officials.” So, Obama, Trump, and Biden rubbished the
Yucca solution, and offered no Plan B. Sorry
kids!
Luckily, hope was on the way!
In February 2019, tree-hugging progressives, led by Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey, were galloping in to rescue us. The answer to our prayers was called the
Green New Deal (GND). An early
version of the plan rejected the notion that carbon-free nuclear energy was
necessary to fight climate change and keep the perpetually growing economy on
life support. It was simply too
expensive, too risky, and there was nowhere to store the waste for all eternity. The best solution was “clean, green,
renewable energy” — mostly solar and wind.
Not everyone agreed.
Shutting down the nuclear industry would mean burning even more fossil energy
to keep energy guzzling consumers in the express lane to oblivion. The downside of solar and wind is intermittency
— when the winds calm, or sunbeams disappear, they quit working. Nukes can consistently produce lots of
electricity, whilst emitting no carbon during operation.
These were the two possible options: renewables only, or
renewables plus nukes. Not worthy of serious
consideration was a third option: mindfully confronting our embarrassing addictions
— sharply reigning in consumption, turning off the lights, unplugging the
gizmos, learning how to walk, and seriously contemplating the dark vibes of our
maximum impact lifestyles.
Anyway, the initial anti-nuke version of the GND generated
resistance from the Sunrise Movement and other folks. They wanted to continue using carbon-free
nuclear energy, rather than burning even more fossil fuel, and belching even
more carbon into the atmosphere. On May
6, 2019, Ocasio-Cortez felt the heat, saw the light, and developed an “open
mind” on nukes. She was willing to
leave the door open on nuclear. She
imagined that newer reactors were far better than the old technology. Ideally, the long term goal should be to meet
100% of U.S. electricity needs via “clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy.”
OK, so that’s what I’ve learned recently. It’s been a while since I posted new stuff
here. Revising this book is hard on my
tired brain. The above fits into a
bigger picture that’s still under construction.
The bigger picture has more components.
We live in an era of conspiracy theories and fake news. The powers that be are working very hard to
assure us that the climate crisis is an annoyance that can and will be solved. With the transition to clean, green,
renewable energy, the consumer way of life can happily metastasize
forever. We’re on the path to a brighter
future. Don’t worry, go shopping.
I previously posted four sample sections on climate change: [55]
[56]
[57]
[58]. Those sections describe why I perceive that
the climate is in a positive feedback loop.
Atmospheric carbon continues accumulating, polar ice continues shrinking,
Arctic temperatures continue rising, permafrost continues melting, and many other
processes are intensifying in a downward spiral that is out of control. Even if all eight billion of us suddenly went
Stone Age tomorrow, the avalanche of change we’ve unleashed would continue its
descent.
An enormous shortcoming in the clean, green, renewable future
dream is that it’s essentially electric powered. Fossil energy is not invited. Building millions of wind turbines, solar
panels, storage batteries, and radically redesigning the global grid would be
impossible without the use of technology that requires huge amounts of fossil
energy. All of these gizmos have limited
working lifespans. Periodic replacement
is needed.
Electricity cannot generate the intense heat needed to make
metals, silicon, concrete, and other compounds.
Mining, smelting, transportation systems, and many other processes
cannot be entirely performed using electricity.
You can’t manufacture stuff like machinery for construction,
agriculture, high technology, and so on.
Thus, the GND is the opposite of carbon-free.
Lately — and very late in the game — some folks are beginning
to push back on the Green New Deal’s magical thinking. Megan Seibert and William
E. Rees discussed its serious shortcomings.
Their report relied heavily on the pioneering research by Alice
Friedemann. Geologist Walter
Youngquist was my friend. The second
edition of his outstanding GeoDestinies
book is now available as a free 600-page PDF.
Someday my revisions will be complete, and this stuff will
all be presented in a neat and tidy manner.
Thank you for your patience! Have
a nice day!
