More or less nuclear reactors? Nation at odds since Fukushima

March 6, 2015 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

At the same time that U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has testified before nuclear regulators that more, not less, nuclear reactors are needed, groups including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), Public Citizen, and the Sierra Club, are making a push with a new Web initiative to shut nuclear down. Interestingly, next week marks the four year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster.

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander.

In his testimony, Alexander discussed solving the stalemate on nuclear waste, avoiding excessive regulation of nuclear plants, licensing new and existing reactors in an efficient manner, and making sure the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is running effectively as keys to unleashing nuclear power in the United States.

"We must solve the 25-year-old stalemate about what to do with used fuel from our nuclear reactors to ensure that nuclear power has a strong future in this country," Alexander said at a hearing of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy & Water Development, which he chairs. "But let me be clear: Yucca Mountain can and should be part of the solution. Federal law designates Yucca Mountain as the nation's repository for used nuclear fuel."

Alexander plans to reintroduce legislation with Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and, perhaps, others to create both temporary and permanent storage sites for nuclear waste in addition to Yucca Mountain. He also plans to include a pilot program for nuclear waste storage in the subcommittee's appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2016.

Leading environmental organizations, however, are not only for fewer nuclear reactors, they want a future free of nuclear.

The initiative, as laid out on the Make Nuclear History Web site claims, "There is a solution to climate change without nuclear energy…Now is the time to create our fossil and nuclear-free future…A fossil and nuclear-free future powered by renewable sources is possible and the transition is happening now. The benefits of clean, affordable and renewable energy compared with the dirty, expensive legacy of fossil fuels and nuclear reactors are obvious."

"The Fukushima disaster shows us exactly why we cannot and should not try to rely on nuclear energy to solve the climate crisis," said Tim Judson, executive director of NIRS. "Japan's decision to invest in nuclear rather than renewables left the country totally unprepared when calamity struck. Clean, renewable energy sources are abundant, affordable, and ready to go. They can replace nuclear and fossil fuels, which are two sides of the dirty, extreme energy coin."

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan in spring of 2011 prompted the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to establish a task force to recommend how U.S. plant owners can better protect their facilities; however, the NRC has done much less when it comes to the more recent shutdown of the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska.

What happened at Fort Calhoun was not nearly as dramatic as Fukushima, but that doesn't negate the safety problems discovered during the outage -- many of which date back to when the reactor was built more than 40 years ago and prevented the reactor from restarting for two and a half years.

Unlike its response to the Fukushima accident, however, the NRC has not examined the underlying causes of the Fort Calhoun shutdown, which could pose a threat to the U.S. nuclear fleet -- or, in a worst-case scenario, lead to an "American Fukushima," according to Dave Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists and author of "No More Fukushimas; No More Fort Calhouns."

Sen. Alexander noted that the NRC has not requested money in the President's budget to continue the licensing of Yucca Mountain, even though the commission will need more than its current unspent balance, and there is about $36 billion available in the Nuclear Waste Fund.

"Knowing that there are additional steps and they will cost money, why would you not request additional funds in your budget?" Alexander said.

For more:
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http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/more-or-less-nuclear-reactors-nation-odds-fukushima/2015-03-06