Daily Archives: February 1, 2006

Reprocessing Is Not the “Solution” to the Nuclear Waste Problem

Posted on February 1, 2006 by bfiacarolinevernon

  Reprocessing Is Not the “Solution”
to the Nuclear Waste Problem

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

This program is central to the Bush administration’s efforts to jump-start the moribund nuclear power industry.

Statement of Mary Olson, NIRS Campaign to Stop Reprocessing. Director of NIRS southeast office:

“[George W.] Bush’s misguided obsession with nuclear power has reached a critical and dangerous juncture. The administration has been desperate to find a nuclear waste solution in order to resuscitate the moribund and unpopular nuclear power industry by moving forward quickly on the scientifically-flawed Yucca Mountain waste dump in Nevada. Instead it has found itself spinning its wheels in the mire of Yucca Mountain’s geologic instability and the scandal of covering up these data. Faced with an industry impatient to move its on-site waste, the administration is now clutching at a new nuclear straw.”

“Its latest scheme is reprocessing of irradiated commercial fuel, one of the dirtiest and most proliferation-vulnerable processes in the nuclear fuel chain. Abandoned in this country for more than 30 years, countries where it has been done – including Britain, France and Russia – are now reaping its hideous environmental legacy of contamination and disease.”

“The price tag in dollars – as well as in health impacts – will be enormous if this country is allowed to venture back down the reprocessing road. The only U.S. commercial reprocessing site ever to operate – in West Valley, New York – is projected to cost more than $5 billion to clean up despite reprocessing only a fraction of the waste sent there between 1966 and 1972. Now Congress has awarded the U.S. Department of Energy $50 million of our money to set this debacle in motion once again although the totals are likely to reach the hundreds of billions of dollars.”

“The existing nuclear reactors around the globe are already sitting-duck terrorist targets. Separating plutonium from nuclear power waste fuel – as reprocessing does – simply sets up new and inviting opportunities for terrorists to seize fissile, bomb-capable materials.  Support for a reprocessing program makes a mockery of statements coming out of this administration that protecting the American people from terrorism is paramount.  Instead, it will put more Americans in harm’s way.”

Reprocessing Is Not the “Solution” to the Nuclear Waste Problem

The Radioactive Waste Burden

Splitting atoms to make electricity has created an enormous problem: waste containing 95% of the toxic radioactivity produced during the Atomic Age. Nuclear weapons production, industrial activity, research and medicine combined, create only 5% of this problem.
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Blog for Iowa Joins PETA in Demanding Patty Judge Return Slaughterhouse Donation

Posted on February 1, 2006 by bfialindathieman

Blog for Iowa Joins PETA in Demanding Patty Judge Return Slaughterhouse Donation Secretary of Agriculture Judge Accepted Donation from Owner of Slaughterhouse Under Federal Investigation Today, Blog for Iowa joins People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in calling … Continue reading →

Posted in Calls to Action, Candidates, Iowa in the News, Main Page | Comments Off on Blog for Iowa Joins PETA in Demanding Patty Judge Return Slaughterhouse Donation