Part 1 of 2 Parts
I have often blogged about the problem of nuclear waste, especially spent nuclear fuel. Nuclear experts at Stanford University say that the Biden administration will need to find a way to permanently dispose of nuclear waste if his ambitious climate mitigation plans are to be met.
When Biden took over the presidency in January 2021, he inherited around eighty-three thousand metric tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel distributed at above ground sites around the U.S. This amounts to three times the weight of the Statue of Liberty including the concrete foundation. Biden also inherited a stalemate on the U.S. policy of disposing of spent fuel. Four decades have passed since the U.S. started working on a permanent underground repository for spent nuclear fuel. More than thirteen billion dollars have been spent. Unfortunately, there is still no widely accepted strategy for disposing of spent nuclear fuel permanently.
Sally Benson is the Precourt Family Professor and a professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford. She said, “Nuclear power might not be needed everywhere, but in some parts of the country it might be the best and maybe even only reliable low-carbon option. But it’s hard to make the case that we should move ahead with nuclear power until we have a solution on nuclear waste.”
Retired Admiral James Ellis is the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and former Navy commander. He says that even if nuclear power is not the best answer to our energy needs in the long run, it is too early to abandon it. He believes that nuclear energy is an important source of clean and reliable power. He said that with respect to renewable energy sources, there are still grid-scale storage and reliability problems that must be solved. He added that “There’s an old saying in the Navy that you never let go of one rope until you get a firm grip on the other.”
Rodney Ewing is the Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security and foremost nuclear waste expert at Stanford. He believes that it is indisputable that the U.S. is very advanced with respect to nuclear knowledge and technology. However, our nuclear waste program is plagued by a complex web of factors. He said, “We’ve spent more money than anyone else on this subject. We have more reactors than any other country in the world. And yet our nuclear waste strategy is at a standstill while other countries are making greater progress.”
Over the last ten years, several studies have made a comprehensive survey of the nuclear waste issue. One such study was produced in 2012 by the Obama administration’s Blue-Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. Ewing headed a three-year project to improve understanding of why the U.S. nuclear waste program has not been successful and to recommend a way forward to turn it around. The result of this work was the 2018 report titled Reset of America’s Nuclear Waste Management Strategy and Policy.
Please read Part 2 next.