Lingering hazards of nuclear
waste
BY KAY DREY
More than 20 years ago, environmentalists began warning Missourians that no safe place
exists on Earth for radioactive waste. That was even before the Callaway plant began
operation, and before it began to fission uranium fuel and generate its first tons of
waste. To date, no safe, politically viable site has been found, and no technology exists
to contain the wastes or destroy their radioactivity.
At the Callaway nuclear power plant, where more than 99 percent of Missouri’s
radioactive waste is generated, some of the "low-level" waste is so
radioactively hot that it must be handled by remote-control equipment or the workers could
get a lethal dose. The only radioactive waste allowed to be called high-level is the
irradiated fuel after its removal from the reactor vessel; that is, the fuel rods
themselves. All other waste at Callaway must be called "low-level."
St. Louisans should know a lot about radioactive waste, because we still have over a
million cubic yards of the oldest radioactive waste here in our midst. These historic
wastes were generated from 1942 until 1957 for nuclear weapons purposes and now lie
splattered in and around the area. A million cubic yards, and no one knows what to do with
the first cupful.
A thousand laboratories at Washington University use radioactive materials in research.
They share a total of two curies at any one time; most technicians work with only
tiny fractions of one curie and treat that with great care and caution. In comparison, the
Callaway reactor vessel while in operation contains some 15 to 20 billion curies,
and the spent-fuel pool contains hundreds of millions of curies. No site has been built or
even geographically approved for the nation’s high-level fuel-rod wastes, and none
may ever be.
Some particulate and gaseous wastes leak out of Callaway’s 50,000 fissioning fuel
rods into the reactor vessel water and some leak into the air inside the buildings. Much
is captured and filtered; the rest is released into the Missouri River or the atmosphere.
When the saturated filters are replaced, they are called "low-level" waste.
That is, the same extremely dangerous fission products that are called high-level waste
when inside the fuel rods are called "low-level" when they leak out of the rods.
When highly radioactive parts and components are replaced because of accidents, defects or
aging, they, too, are called "low-level."
"Low-level" and high-level wastes will continue emitting radioactive
particles and rays that can mutate and otherwise damage cells of humans and other living
creatures virtually forever into the future. Power-plant wastes have half-lives of
thousands or years and longer.
In 1987 Michigan was chosen as the first state to receive the wastes of the seven-state
Midwest Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact. Its citizens and political leaders
understandably protested and got their state kicked out of the compact.
Ohio residents are now protesting their status as the Midwest’s next appointed
host, as will people no doubt do in Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana when
each state successively is threatened with becoming the host state.
At present, the only "low-level" waste facility willing to accept the
nation’s commercial wastes—from nuclear power plants (containing over 91 percent
of the U.S. "low-level" radioactivity), medical/academic (with only two-tenths
of 1 percent), and industrial and government wastes—is located at Barnwell, S.C., in
a very humid and therefore unsuitable site. Even though the Barnwell facility is known to
generate money for its state’s schools, nearby residents no doubt have legitimate
concerns.
One would think that the federal government would mandate a moratorium on the
generation of more nuclear-power and nuclear-weapons wastes until safe locations and
technologies are found to isolate the stockpiles that are already burdening countless
communities nationwide. Electric utilities and the public have found nuclear power to be
too expensive, dirty and dangerous. That’s why the last viable order for a nuclear
power plant in the United States was placed in October 1973—25 years ago.
In spite of these facts, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding the development of
"advanced" nuclear power reactors and is calling for the resumption of nuclear
power plant sales at home and abroad.
This commentary appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in November 1995.
[ Archives ]
If you have a comment on this article please click here.
[ Top ] [ Home ]
[_private/toc_for_second_level_pages.html]