Nuclear waste storage update: No, we can’t ask Superman to solve the problem.

Don’t you wish sometimes that superheroes were real?  If they were, we’d ask Superman to take all the nuclear waste in the U.S. and discard it into Jupiter or the Sun (he did discard our nuclear weapons in Superman IV — Quest for Peace).

For those of you keeping track, we have a boat load (technical term) of nuclear waste that needs to be transported to a place (or places) where is can be safely stored for a few thousand years.  To date, the U.S. Government has talked, spent, studied, dug, talked, spent, studied and spent some more but really is no closer to solving the long-term storage issue than it was in 1970.

Late last month, President Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future came out with its final report on what needs to be done. The commission, co‐chaired by former Congressman Lee H. Hamilton and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, was tasked by Energy Secretary Steven Chu with devising a new strategy for managing the nation’s sizable and growing inventory of nuclear waste.   Here is a link to the report (and the 15-page executive summary).

They don’t tackle whether Yucca Mountain has a future or not, but it does showcase common sense problems and possible solutions.

Under the problem category: cost.  Users of nuclear energy (remember, Illinois is the country’s #1 nuclear energy producer) pay a per-KWH fee that goes into the Nuclear Waste Fund that is supposed to be spent on long-term storage.  It’s not.  Plus, all taxpayers are paying through a Judgment Fund that is used to compensate nuclear generators for the Fed’s failure to accept the waste.  That’s a double whammy for sure!

The best solution in the summary is the idea of having “consent based” approach to storage that includes incentives (i.e. $$) for local communities to store the waste in their area…assuming it meets geologic standards. This is the “landfill approach” to nuclear waste — the idea that no one wants a landfill in their back yard but if we pay them enough money via tipping fees they’ll get over it and use the money for schools, government buildings and services that the area would not otherwise be able to afford.

It’s hard to believe in a country where lawsuits are filed over the siting of a McMansion that any community would come to a “consensus” on hosting nuclear waste.  But what choice do we have but to try?

Thanks to the members of the Commission for writing a report that is based on sanity instead of fear and regional politics. Let’s hope it’s a starting point to solving a problem.  This nuclear can only be kicked down the road so far…unless we wait for Superman to arrive and save the day!