-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
Nuclear waste cleanup should be INEEL’s top job
Archive
Comments
Story
Meeting in Idaho Falls last month, the INEEL Citizens Advisory
Board learned that cleaning up nuclear waste-until recently Job One
at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory-has
slipped to fifth among the goals in the Site’s new role as
“the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy
research and development.” A week later, Sen. Larry Craig
announced a plan to spend more than $1 billion of taxpayer money to
develop an “advanced” reactor at INEEL.
Developing new nuclear energy technologies clearly is ranked far
above cleaning up the Cold War mess contaminating the Snake River
Aquifer at INEEL. Power once “too cheap to meter” is
now touted as “clean, abundant, affordable and reliable
energy.” But that’s not a good enough bet for private
industry to do its own research and development. Because no
market-accountable institutions will do so, taxpayers would assume
the economic risk and foot the bill for the “next
generation” atomic energy adventure, including cleanup of the
newly produced radioactive waste.
At the Snake River Alliance, we believe that the priority should
be to clean up the environmental problems created by past nuclear
energy and weapons production, such as the millions of cubic feet
of buried plutonium-contaminated waste at INEEL. We don’t
believe more radioactive waste should be created. We believe that
energy conservation and renewable energy sources are the best ways
to meet energy needs. We do not support building new nuclear power
reactors.
As Idaho’s nuclear watchdog, in recent years the Alliance
has focused on problems of nuclear waste storage and treatment at
INEEL. We helped stop construction of a nuclear waste incinerator
and have raised public awareness of the danger posed to
Idaho’s water by the waste in the ground above the Snake
River Aquifer. There is still much work to be done before
Idaho’s nuclear waste is safely managed, and we will continue
to work with the people of Idaho to ensure the job is done.
Meanwhile, the nuclear industry has increased public relations
to promote nuclear power. Lobbying efforts accompanied by large
campaign contributions pressure government to pay for what private
investors will not. INEEL’s mission was changed recently from
nuclear waste cleanup to research and development of the next
generation of nuclear reactors. This puts INEEL and Idaho at the
center of the debate over the future of nuclear power.
The economics of atomic power have never justified the vast
investment made by this nation in nuclear energy research and
development. If over the past 50 years we had focused as much of
our technical expertise and financial resources on conservation,
improved energy efficiency, and serious development of alternative
energy resources, there would be no threat of an energy crisis.
When all costs are taken into account-mining and processing
uranium fuel, building and operating nuclear plants, containing the
radioactivity, storing huge amounts of dangerous waste and dealing
with immense safety, security and health issues-atomic power is no
bargain, even with more than $1 trillion in government subsidies
that accompanied its development and continue to prop it up.
Indeed, the nuclear industry has survived until now only because of
those massive subsidies, and not a single new US nuclear plant has
been ordered since the ‘70s.
With this new proposal, we are to believe that a design yet to
be determined will have solved the radioactive waste and safety
problems of past reactors, and it will all be accomplished by 2010!
Idaho already has thousands of tons of radioactive waste sitting
above the Snake River Aquifer from commercial reactors, the nuclear
navy, nuclear weapons production and other sources. We don’t
need any more!
Gary Richardson is executive director of the
Snake River Alliance, an Idaho-based grassroots group working
through research, education, and community advocacy for peace and
justice, the end of nuclear weapons production activities, and
responsible solutions to nuclear waste and
contamination.
Gary Richardson, Snake River Alliance