Antinuclear

USA company seeks govt compensation for “stranded” nuclear waste casks

Could South Australia end up with stranded nuclear waste casks, and lawsuits against the State govt?

Rowe seeks money for nuke waste storage  By DIANE BRONCACCIO  Recorder Staff Tuesday, August 16, 2016 ROWE — The Yankee Atomic Electric Co. nuclear power plant in Rowe shut down its 185-megawatt reactor in 1992, leaving in place 15 dry casks of radioactive spent fuel, along with one cask of higher-level nuclear waste, until the federal government finds a permanent home for waste like this.

Now, Rowe and other U.S. communities with “de facto” interim spent nuclear fuel storage sites are seeking annual compensation for this storage from the federal government.

Congressman Richard E. Neal, D-First District, has agreed to co-sponsor the “Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Site Compensation Act of 2016,” which would require annual payments of $15 per kilogram of spent nuclear fuel stored at the sites of former nuclear power plants built for electricity generation.

For Rowe, this would generate about $1.9 million for every year the town applies for this funding, says Selectmen’s Chairwoman Marilyn Wilson. “We wrote to Congressman Neal saying we wanted his support, and he has signed on as a co-sponsor,” she said. “He will be visiting Rowe in the fall.”

When contacted by The Recorder, Neal sent a statement, saying: “As local, state and federal officials continue to try and help compensate communities where nuclear fuel is stored, this important bipartisan proposal will be fundamental to our efforts. I fully understand the financial and environmental implications of storing this hazardous material in western Massachusetts, and strongly support the safe and permanent disposal of these highly radioactive wastes.”…

According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the Department of Energy was required to maintain interim spent nuclear fuel storage facilities before moving nuclear waste to a permanent place, such as the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nev., site that was approved by Congress in 2002 but drew tremendous public outcry. Federal funding to develop that site ended in 2011, leaving non-governmental agencies, such as utilities, without a place for permanent storage. Meanwhile, communities like Rowe, which once contained nuclear power plants have ended up with the stored waste indefinitely.

The bill was proposed by Congressman Robert J. Dold for the town of Zion, Ill. That community, located near the Lake Michigan shore, has a population of 25,000, a nuclear power plant that is being decommissioned and a large quanity of spent nuclear fuel. The town has been housing spent fuel since 1998, according to Dold.

“Communities that agreed to maintain such interim facilities were entitled to support payments, under the (Nuclearn Waste Policy Act),” he said. “While no interim storage facility, as designated in the NWPA, ever opened, facilities like Zion have become de facto interim spent nuclear fuel storage sites.” He said the goal of this legislation is to get compensation for communities like Zion “that are affected by the presence of spent nuclear fuel but that do not benefit from the presence of an operating reactor.”

Dold lists 13 towns with closed or closing reactors. In New England, they include the Maine Yankee in Wiscasset, Maine, Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., and Rowe. The Rowe site stores about 127 metric tons of spent fuel. The plant operated from 1961 to 1992, producing 44 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity during those years, according to the Yankee Rowe website. The plant was fully decommissioned by 2007. The nuclear waste is stored on roughly 2 acres of its 1,800-acre site.

According to information on the Yankee Rowe website, the federal government was required to begin removing Yankee Rowe’s nuclear waste by January 1998. But the Department of Energy Resources hasn’t yet met this obligation and it is uncertain when it will. Meanwhile, it is Yankee Rowe’s responsibility as an Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensee to safely store the waste in compliance with all applicable federal regulations including programs for security, emergency planning, and cask monitoring.

Once the federal government fulfills its commitment to remove the nuclear waste from the site, the interim storage site will be decommissioned and Yankee Rowe will go out of business.http://www.recorder.com/Rowe-seeks-funding-for-nuclear-waste-storage-4121327

August 17, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized