Antinuclear

Current nuclear crisis obscures the even bigger problem of wastes

nuclear waste lasts forever. That’s the real horror of Fukushima – that the spread of radioactive material could make an entire chunk of Japan uninhabitable. We could afford to be smug if we knew how to deal with our nuclear waste. But we don’t.

Forget meltdowns. The real nuclear problem is waste, thestar.com Thomas Walkom , 21 March 11, For Canada, the danger of nuclear power lies not in a Japanese-style meltdown. When industry boosters say such an event is unlikely here, they are right.

But what the boosters don’t talk about is radioactive waste. That’s the main hazard, the part of the nuclear question that has never been properly addressed. No one knows what to do with nuclear fuel rods that remain highly radioactive for thousands of years.

The industry talks of burying them. But this is not a real solution. Sealed containers leak. Ground shifts. Over decades, unforeseen events occur.

That’s why the federal Nuclear Waste Management Organization, which is charged with disposing of these used fuel rods, has so far been unable to find a place willing to take them.

The industry-dominated body says that over 40 years Canadian nuclear power stations, (most of them in Ontario) have already stockpiled 48,000 metric tonnes of used radioactive fuel. An additional 2,000 metric tonnes are added to these stockpiles annually.

Used fuel is toxic and dangerous. It’s the spent fuel atop one of the reactors at Japan’s ill-fated Fukushima nuclear plant that keeps catching fire and spewing radioactive particulate into the air.

Canadian power plants also keep their used fuel rods on site. First they plunk them into pools of water until they cool down. That can take ten years. Then they put them in silos, hoping that – eventually – someone will figure out what to do with them.

Since Japan’s nuclear disaster started to unfold, the industry and its friends have been quick to assure the public that such a thing couldn’t happen here…….

Any significant shift away from nuclear power in Ontario is inconceivable to politicians. Both Premier Dalton McGuinty’s governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives are committed to building new nuclear plants. The New Democrats are opposed – although it’s worth remembering that when the NDP won power in Ontario 21 years ago, their critique of nuclear energy quickly evaporated.

Friends of the nuclear industry like to point out that every energy source has risks. Windmills make noise; gas-fired turbines contribute to global warming; even hydro dams interfere with the environment.

But nuclear waste lasts forever. That’s the real horror of Fukushima – that the spread of radioactive material could make an entire chunk of Japan uninhabitable. We could afford to be smug if we knew how to deal with our nuclear waste. But we don’t.

Walkom: Forget meltdowns. The real nuclear problem is waste – thestar.com

March 22, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized