re: This Atomic World
Russia also "receives nuclear waste from European sources - primarily the French - in what is mainly a dumping exercise", Mr. Large disclosed.
After a bit of Googling, apparently not only does France still dump nuclear waste into the ocean, much to the chagrin of Greenpeace, they also give it to Russia and let them dump it. A perfect partnership for the planet!
The DOE site is fairly informative as to the state of nuclear waste storage in the US. Click on each state to see the time left before their spent fuel storage space runs out and the quantity of spent fuel stored. Their brochure on spent fuel transportation is here
I get a real kick out of their headline quote! A fire chief from Chicago, John Eversole, says he and the association of fire chiefs, believe transporting nuclear waste can be done safely! What's more the brochure informs the reader that spent nuclear fuel is not flammable - "it can't burn even if engulfed in fire". Whew! That's a big load off my mind! ;-)
The claim they make "2,700 shipments; 1.6 million miles; 30 years; no harmful release of radiation" is also great propaganda and massively misleading.
Talk about catering to the uninformed. No mention of leaking casks, no mention of the amount of radiation released per trip, no mention of what exactly would happen if one of these casks busts open in a rail accident or in a major metropolis.
The deadliest stuff known to mankind is shipped in casks that have been test immersed under 3 feet of water without leaking and test dropped from 30 feet without breaking! Wow..that's comforting. ;-)
Now we see why the French simply dump the waste into the oceans or ship it to Russia and let them dump it into the oceans. No one knows just how much nuclear material has seeped from French or Russian waste containers and is washing around the oceans and is already working to sterilize the seas of fishies.
And yet the reactors' pools are already exceeding design capacity and sit near or within major population centers. Yucca mountain seems like a solution...but is it really a solution or just another industry mistake?
I see why you were against food irradiation. The closer one is to the industry, the less one believes the press releases. Knowledge definitely comes with a price. Ignorance permits much more bliss. ;-)
PS
Anyone who owns land along the Caliente rail corridor in Nevada, better sell soon.