President Obama was sounding bullish on nuclear energy in his State of the Union speech, but he's been sheepish on the storage of spent nuclear fuels, having driven a stake in the heart of the best option available, at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Last week he was calling for additional power plants; a budget he released this week didn't include a dime for dealing realistically with the hazardous byproducts. The gap between rhetoric and reality is jarring, even for Obama.
It's evidently a ploy to win Republican support for a climate bill, as this Washington Post piece explains. It may also be a case of the president chasing the polls, in a bid to recapture the middle. But Obama's credibility on the issue is shaky at best.
The president made killing Yucca Mountain a campaign promise, in a bid to woo Nevada voters and curry favor with gang green. It's one campaign promise he actually kept. Now, one year later, having dealt the prospect of a nuclear energy revival a staggering blow, he comes out in the State of the Union as an advocate for new plants. He's a champion of nuclear power, rhetorically, but opposes the most logical and secure waste storage option available -- a solution he nixed after decades of study and tens of billions of dollars were spent. Will the real Barack Obama please stand up?
The president proposes "a tripling of government loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors to more than $54 billion," reports Reuters. Yet the Department Of Energy has been dragging its feet on releasing loan guarantees already available. Loan guarantees aren't enough if power providers have no assurance that the regulatory and political climate will remain as hostile as it has been. And no such assurances are possible when the president says one thing and does another.
The president also announced the "formation of a panel to consider the future of nuclear waste storage, including alternatives to a proposed site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada," Reuters reports -- which sends the country back to a drawing board it began scribbling on 30 years ago. The panel will explore every option -- except the most obvious one. It's not allowed to revisit Yucca Mountain. Dusted-off Washington retreads Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft will lead the effort. I guess James Baker was unavailable. Who else would chair a blue ribbon commission that begins its work with its hands tied behind its back?
You can begin work on a new generation of nuclear power plants without resolving the waste storage problem, at least in the short-run, but that's risky, given the strength of the no-nukes lobby. Going back to the drawing board erroneously presumes that no-nukers eventually will embrace a reasonable solution, which they won't.
Republicans should insist that Obama reverse his position on Yucca Mountain before they even consider support for a climate measure. Anything less and they're being played for suckers.
Showing posts with label Yucca Mountain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yucca Mountain. Show all posts
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, July 24, 2009
"Yucca Mountain Syndrome" Infects Colorado
Some people call it "cognitive dissonance." I call it the Yucca Mountain Syndrome. And I'm sorry to report that strains of it are sweeping parts of Western Colorado.
Symptoms of the malady are as follows: It's a fear- and phobia-based psychological disorder in which the infected party understands, on an intellectual level, that public safety will be enhanced if dangerous substances are stored in a secure centralized repository, yet opposes the placement of such a repository in their vicinity, based on an irrational belief that this will do them harm. Sufferers of Yucca Mountain Syndrome (or YMS) deeply care about public safety on one hand, yet refuse to take the steps necessary to improve public safety, if those steps are viewed as threatening to their individual wellbeing.
They want contradictory things but recognize no contradiction. Reasoning with a YMS sufferer isn't possible. And no amount of scientific education or official reassurances will allay their superstition-like fears. In fact, the more one tries to put their apprehensions to rest, the more hysterical their demands for reassurance become.
In individuals, the effects of an outbreak may be relatively benign: the person who lives in a cockroach-infested home because he fears a can of Raid more, for instance. But a mass infection of YMS can have paralyzing consequences for modern society, which depends on citizens acting rationally and having a measure of trust in science and technology.
YMS seems to have its origins in Nevada, stemming from a now-aborted proposal to build a nuclear waste storage facility in the state (at a place called Yucca Mountain). Even many of the leaders in that state -- including members of Congress -- have been infected, clouding their judgments on certain policy matters.
But a new strain of the syndrome has cropped up in Western Colorado, around Grand Junction, in response to a proposal to put a federal mercury repository in the area. And it's already infected the thinking of some state leaders, including Gov. Bill Ritter, who began showing symptoms after the mercury storage issue hit the headlines.
There is no known cure for YMS. We may just have to let the mania run its course -- like the Salem witch hunts ran their course -- and hope that reason is restored in time to avert the calamity that's sure to occur if the nation refuses to deal rationally and responsibility with hazardous waste management and storage.
Until a vaccine is developed, the best we can do is reason with YMS sufferers and hope their fevers eventually pass.
Symptoms of the malady are as follows: It's a fear- and phobia-based psychological disorder in which the infected party understands, on an intellectual level, that public safety will be enhanced if dangerous substances are stored in a secure centralized repository, yet opposes the placement of such a repository in their vicinity, based on an irrational belief that this will do them harm. Sufferers of Yucca Mountain Syndrome (or YMS) deeply care about public safety on one hand, yet refuse to take the steps necessary to improve public safety, if those steps are viewed as threatening to their individual wellbeing.
They want contradictory things but recognize no contradiction. Reasoning with a YMS sufferer isn't possible. And no amount of scientific education or official reassurances will allay their superstition-like fears. In fact, the more one tries to put their apprehensions to rest, the more hysterical their demands for reassurance become.
In individuals, the effects of an outbreak may be relatively benign: the person who lives in a cockroach-infested home because he fears a can of Raid more, for instance. But a mass infection of YMS can have paralyzing consequences for modern society, which depends on citizens acting rationally and having a measure of trust in science and technology.
YMS seems to have its origins in Nevada, stemming from a now-aborted proposal to build a nuclear waste storage facility in the state (at a place called Yucca Mountain). Even many of the leaders in that state -- including members of Congress -- have been infected, clouding their judgments on certain policy matters.
But a new strain of the syndrome has cropped up in Western Colorado, around Grand Junction, in response to a proposal to put a federal mercury repository in the area. And it's already infected the thinking of some state leaders, including Gov. Bill Ritter, who began showing symptoms after the mercury storage issue hit the headlines.
There is no known cure for YMS. We may just have to let the mania run its course -- like the Salem witch hunts ran their course -- and hope that reason is restored in time to avert the calamity that's sure to occur if the nation refuses to deal rationally and responsibility with hazardous waste management and storage.
Until a vaccine is developed, the best we can do is reason with YMS sufferers and hope their fevers eventually pass.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Go Dark, America
Roughly 20 percent of the electricity consumed by this energy-starved country comes from nuclear power plants, and it will be extremely difficult to build new ones, or replace aging ones, without a reasonable solution to the problem of spent fuel storage. Yucca Mountain, though not a perfect solution -- is there such a thing? -- was the best we had come up, at least until yesterday, when Secretary of Energy Steven Chu drove the final nail in its coffin, marking the triumph of fear over reason, politics over practical necessity.
Dying with it is the dream of a nuclear energy revival in the United States, since this administration's willingness to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain -- after 27 years of work and $13.5 billion spent -- can't help but discourage companies that might be considering the construction of new power plants, given all the regulatory and public relations hurdles they already face.
"Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Thursday that the proposed Yucca Mountain site in Nevada no longer is an option for storing highly radioactive nuclear waste, brushing aside criticism from several Republican lawmakers.
Instead, Chu said the Obama administration believes the about 60,000 tons of waste in the form of used reactor fuel can remain at nuclear power plants while a new, comprehensive plan for waste disposal is developed.
Chu's remarks touched off a sometimes testy exchange with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
Obama's rival for president last year, and provided the most definitive signal yet that the government's attempt to address the commercial nuclear waste problem is veering in a dramatically new direction.
At a hearing, McCain and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the decision not to pursue the Yucca Mountain project threatens the expansion of nuclear energy because the government can give no assurance on waste disposal."
McCain asked point blank," What's wrong with Yucca Mountain, Mr. Chu?"
To which Chu glibly replied: "I think we can do a better job."
That's quite an epitaph for a project that was researched and worked on for 27 years, at a cost of $13.5 billion. I wonder how many more years, and billions more dollars, it will take to come up with this illusive something "better"?
Who still questions whether we have radicals steering the ship of state? And who can tell me where 20 percent of our electricity will come from when existing nuclear power plants go cold?
Oh, that's right: we'll get it from windmills.
Opponents picked Yucca Mountain apart by arguing for perfection and playing on fear. It wasn't safe enough or secure enough or remote enough. Yet there's far less safety and security and remoteness in the alternative they now offer -- which is to leave these materials in the more than 100 scattered locations where they sit, waiting for final disposition, in facilities designed for temporary storage. All these facilities -- all these potential targets for terrorists -- are much closer to population centers than Yucca Mountain is.
That this news is greeted with a collective yawn demonstrates how completely disconnected the American people are. They sit back, complacently assuming the lights will go on when they flick the switch, while radicals wage all-out war on the very industries -- coal, nuclear, oil and gas -- that make this possible. They spew bromides about "energy independence," but allow these same radicals to advance policies that make that goal further and further out of reach. They live in a fantasy world, in which all their modern conveniences, and all their freedoms, are guaranteed in perpetuity, even as their chosen political leaders back policies that endanger both.
And most of them are so stubbornly ignorant about how things really work -- making it impossible for them to connect the dots between regulatory causes and market/consumer effects --that they'll undoubtedly blame the evil energy companies when they're left sitting in the cold and dark.
I'm stocking up on firewood and looking forward to that day.
Dying with it is the dream of a nuclear energy revival in the United States, since this administration's willingness to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain -- after 27 years of work and $13.5 billion spent -- can't help but discourage companies that might be considering the construction of new power plants, given all the regulatory and public relations hurdles they already face.
"Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Thursday that the proposed Yucca Mountain site in Nevada no longer is an option for storing highly radioactive nuclear waste, brushing aside criticism from several Republican lawmakers.
Instead, Chu said the Obama administration believes the about 60,000 tons of waste in the form of used reactor fuel can remain at nuclear power plants while a new, comprehensive plan for waste disposal is developed.
Chu's remarks touched off a sometimes testy exchange with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
Obama's rival for president last year, and provided the most definitive signal yet that the government's attempt to address the commercial nuclear waste problem is veering in a dramatically new direction.
At a hearing, McCain and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the decision not to pursue the Yucca Mountain project threatens the expansion of nuclear energy because the government can give no assurance on waste disposal."
McCain asked point blank," What's wrong with Yucca Mountain, Mr. Chu?"
To which Chu glibly replied: "I think we can do a better job."
That's quite an epitaph for a project that was researched and worked on for 27 years, at a cost of $13.5 billion. I wonder how many more years, and billions more dollars, it will take to come up with this illusive something "better"?
Who still questions whether we have radicals steering the ship of state? And who can tell me where 20 percent of our electricity will come from when existing nuclear power plants go cold?
Oh, that's right: we'll get it from windmills.
Opponents picked Yucca Mountain apart by arguing for perfection and playing on fear. It wasn't safe enough or secure enough or remote enough. Yet there's far less safety and security and remoteness in the alternative they now offer -- which is to leave these materials in the more than 100 scattered locations where they sit, waiting for final disposition, in facilities designed for temporary storage. All these facilities -- all these potential targets for terrorists -- are much closer to population centers than Yucca Mountain is.
That this news is greeted with a collective yawn demonstrates how completely disconnected the American people are. They sit back, complacently assuming the lights will go on when they flick the switch, while radicals wage all-out war on the very industries -- coal, nuclear, oil and gas -- that make this possible. They spew bromides about "energy independence," but allow these same radicals to advance policies that make that goal further and further out of reach. They live in a fantasy world, in which all their modern conveniences, and all their freedoms, are guaranteed in perpetuity, even as their chosen political leaders back policies that endanger both.
And most of them are so stubbornly ignorant about how things really work -- making it impossible for them to connect the dots between regulatory causes and market/consumer effects --that they'll undoubtedly blame the evil energy companies when they're left sitting in the cold and dark.
I'm stocking up on firewood and looking forward to that day.
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