Who will clean up after the nuclear plants?
Many of the civilian nuclear power plants built in the US. and Western Europe during the halcyon days of the Eisenhower administration are coming to the end of their operational lives as their operating licenses expire.
The looming deadlines leave their operators with two stark choices 鈥� apply for a license extension beyond the original forty years, or decommission.
A bad choice, however you look at it. For a license extension, aging NPPs must upgrade, while decommissioning raises the primordial question sidestepped since the dawn of the civilian nuclear age 鈥� what to do with the radioactive debris?听(Related article:听)
The British imbroglio.
The predicted cost of decommissioning Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria, Britain鈥檚 largest nuclear complex, is now estimated at an eye-watering听听over the next three decades, a figure that inexorably year by year continues to rise and represents over $1,546 for every man, woman and child in the British Isles.听
Sellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the British coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England, a subsidiary of the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale, which, along with neighboring Calder Hall, is undergoing decommissioning and dismantling of its four nuclear power generating reactors.
Now, the aging facility, one of the first established under the Eisenhower鈥檚 administration鈥檚 civilian 鈥渁toms for peace鈥� program, is due for decommissioning.
So, where to store the nuclear waste?
The decision follows in the wake of a 30 January meeting of three local authorities which have yet to decide whether to agree to further investigation of the possibilities of an underground store in their districts. After local authorities in Kent passed on the proejct, Cumbria county, Allerdale and Copeland are the British councils still expressing interest in the possibility of hosting a听. Sellafield remains a massive local employer, with over 9,000 people directly employed there.听(Related article:听)
Poisoning the regional picture, in April 2010, the company managing Sellafield sent four bags of radioactive waste from its plant to Lillyhall landfill, instead of the low-level repository at Drigg. All of the bags, which contained low-level radioactive waste, including gloves, mops and rubber, were retrieved and returned to Sellafield for correct disposal. Complicating the picture, seven charges were subsequently brought by Britain鈥檚 Environment Agency and the Office for Nuclear Regulation following an investigation into 鈥渕ultiple failures鈥� involving the incorrect disposal of low-level radioactive waste. While Sellafield admitted the charges, Sellafield spokesman Eleanor Sanderson disputed the charge that the error was out of听听and insisted that staff work 鈥渢irelessly鈥� to maintain safety on site. Dr. Rob Allott, EA nuclear regulator team leader, maintained,听 鈥淚t鈥檚 highly likely that some groups of people would have been exposed to radioactivity. The waste is inherently hazardous, but with a low risk factor.鈥�
Addressing the case over the pollution, heard at West Cumbria Courthouse last week, Barry Berlin, for the Health Safety Executive and EA, said an error was caused by a new monitor which had passed the bags as 鈥済eneral鈥� waste, exempting them from strict disposal controls an error that was only uncovered when a training exercise was carried out at Sellafield. Seeking to ameliorate the implications of the sloppy bookkeeping Berlin told the court, 鈥淭here is no doubt that these are welcomed changes. But because we are dealing with radioactivity we submit these should have checked beforehand.鈥�
What remains unsaid that the court case is where the more than $104 billion to decommission听
Sellafield will come from, much less where the nuclear debris will reside after the facility is offline. The British electorate deserves answers to the questions.
Across the Pond, Florida鈥檚 Progress Energy鈥檚 Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant is also in the process of being decommissioned. Not only for consumers but those living nearby, the decisions regarding Sellafield鈥檚 decommissioning are likely to reverberate across the Atlantic.
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