Antinuclear

Taxpayer’s uranium mining clean-up costs not factored in to nuclear’s ‘revival’ costs

While the nuclear power loan guarantees essentially subsidize new power plants, what has not been factored in are the hidden costs of “clean” nuclear power: the financial legacy of past mining and milling operations have reached into tens of billions of dollars in the West’s “National Sacrifice Areas.”

Hot Rocks: Hidden Cost and Foreign Ownership of “Clean” Nuclear Fuel Emerging,THE HUFFINGTON POST, D.A. Barber, 1 April 2010, “…..Unlike coal, which goes straight from the mine to the power plant, uranium goes through several steps to become fuel for “clean” nuclear power plants and then needs to be disposed of.

From the mine the ore goes to a mill to be turned into “yellow cake,” which then goes to an enrichment facility to boost its potency. The enriched uranium is then sent to a fabricator to become nuclear fuel rods before it is sent to the power plant.

Finally, the spent power plant fuel is sent to a disposal site. And at each step of this process, the material leaves behind progressively more toxic – and expensive – waste.

When a company requests to terminate its license for a uranium mill or mine site, the site is placed under the custody and long-term care of the Department of Energy. That means new projects initiated now will become the financial responsibility of the government.

And it’s the uranium mills that are the most problematic and most expensive to tax payers.”We need look no further than this country’s experience with uranium mining and milling activities in the early years of nuclear power to appreciate the importance of regulatory oversight on these issues. Many of those sites are dealing with significant environmental challenges – notably groundwater contamination – that may take years, or even decades, to resolve,” said Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko at a commission briefing on uranium recovery regulation March 2nd….

“I expect that the uranium mining companies, whether Australian, Canadian, or American, are going to do what ever they can do to get out from under remediation,” says Jantz.

When these escalating clean-up efforts are factored in, the total cost of new nuclear power plants gets rather pricey. In 1998, DOE testified to Congress that it would cost approximately $2.3 billion (in 1998 dollars) to clean up the uranium processing facilities nationwide. Because there are other uranium mines and waste sites not included in this estimate, the total cost is expected to be much higher. Such government clean-up estimates of nuclear materials are constantly escalating. Over the past two years, the estimated cleanup costs at 22 federal cold war nuclear weapons plants have escalated from $180 billion to $240 billion.

“To the best of my knowledge after searching for 8-years, no one has ever put together a comprehensive total of taxpayer monies spent by all federal and state agencies on clean-up of the environment, or the cost to human damage, created while making fuel for reactors,” says Sharyn Cunningham, co-chair of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste.

Many of the companies that left hazardous sites in the 1980s are the same companies that are receiving new leases for projects now…..

the mess left behind is
staggering: In New Mexico,…..In Colorado,…Near Moab, Utah,….Wyoming….. Arizona is a unique and potentially expensive case…

While the nuclear power loan guarantees essentially subsidize new power plants, what has not been factored in are the hidden costs of “clean” nuclear power: the financial legacy of past mining and milling operations have reached into tens of billions of dollars in the West’s “National Sacrifice Areas.”

April 2, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, uranium | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium