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Voices from the Earth: Current Issue
Table of "Federal policy…has been to assure that "waste management problems shall not be deferred to other generations," and many environmental groups have shared the same view. Geological burial - at first glance anyway - looks like an ideal way to accomplish that since, after all, it "removes" the wastes from the environment and solves the problem once and for all. But in many ways entombment does just the opposite. It deliberately poisons a portion of the natural world for an endless stretch of time and in doing so it not only leaves future generations with thousands of tons of the most dangerous rubbish imaginable on their hands but makes it as difficult as the state of our technology permits for them to deal with it. We cannot promise our children - never mind those who will follow hundreds or thousands of years hence - that they will be safe from the wastes. And so long as that is so, we are not taking the problem out of their hands so much as we are taking the solution out of their hands." — Kai Erikson |
High Level Waste Transportation
Radiological Health Effects of Routine Shipments
Spent nuclear fuel is extremely radioactive and very deadly. It requires extraordinary precautions and shielding in order to safeguard the public and others from its lethal effects. A person standing one yard away from an unshielded, 10 year old fuel assembly, for example, would receive a lethal dose of radiation (500 rem) in less than three minutes and would incur significant damage within seconds. The surface dose rate of spent fuel is so great (10,000 rem/hour or more) that shipping containers with enough shielding to completely contain all emissions are too heavy to transport economically. Consequently, NRC regulations allow a certain amount of neutron and gamma radiation to be emitted from shipping casks during routine operations and transport (1,000 mrem/hr at the cask surface and 10 mrem/hr 2 meters from the cask surface). Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste Accidents State of Nevada researchers have estimated that a credible, worst case accident involving a spent fuel rail shipment would result in between 356 to 432 latent cancer fatalities, if the accident occurred in a populated area. In addition, there would be thousands of people who would suffer non-lethal effects such as cancers, genetic damage, nervous system disorders, etc. A 1985 DOE contractor report concluded that a maximum severe, credible accident involving a single, current-generation rail cask (one that holds considerably less spent fuel than the casks proposed for repository shipments) could result in the release of a significant amount of radioactive materials to the environment. The study assumed a severe impact followed by a fire fed by large quantities of fuel. According to the study, the release of only a small fraction of the cask's contents would be sufficient to contaminate a 42 square mile area. The costs of cleanup after such an accident in a rural area would exceed $620 million, and the cleanup effort would require 460 days. An alternative analysis by a State of Nevada researcher estimated cleanup costs for the same rural accident that ranged from $176 million to $19.4 billion, depending primarily upon permissible post-accident soil concentrations of cobalt-60, cesium-134, and cesium-137, and upon regulatory requirements for disposal of the contaminated soil. Cleanup after a similar accident in a typical urban area would be considerably more expensive and time consuming (between $62 and $108 billion). Conclusion: Transportation Risks are Substantial and Unwarranted Not only are the risks from spent fuel and high-level waste shipments potentially great, but they are also unnecessary. These materials have long been - and are currently being - stored in safe, secure locations where risks are minimized. With currently available dry storage technology, spent fuel can continue to be safely and economically stored on site for the next 100 years or more. Exposing millions of people in 43 states and thousands of communities to needless risks from the transportation of these materials is more than unwarranted - it is irresponsible and foolhardy. Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects
CONTACTS Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office DOE Yucca Mountain Project Office Citizen Alert Shundahai Network Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program |
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