August 2014

Radioactive Waste 90 - Concern Over Selection of Spent Nuclear Fuel Canisters at San Onofre - Part 2

(Pease read Part 1 if you haven't.)

       Yesterday, I began a blog post about complaints over the plans that Southern California Edison has to select a vendor and purchase spent fuel canisters and dry casks in the near future for storing the fuel being removed from the San Onofre reactors. This is the second part of my post on this topic.

Radioactive Waste 89 - Concern Over Selection of Spent Nuclear Fuel Canisters at San Onofre - Part 1

            I have often mentioned the lack of storage for spent nuclear fuel rods in the United States. It is estimated that all the spent fuel pools in U.S. reactors will be full of spent fuel within five years. If new storage is not created for spent fuel, the reactors will have to be shut down.

Nuclear Reactors 158 - Japanese Communities Want the Japanese Government to Guarantee Reactor Safety in Writing

             Yesterday I blogged about problems with nuclear accident evacuation plans in Japan. Many of the cities that are supposed to host evacuees cannot afford the facilities and supplies demanded (but not funded) by the Japanese national government. All the Japanese reactors were shut down following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011. Now Prime Minister Abe is trying to get the reactors started again.

Nuclear Reactors 157 - Evacuation Plans for Japanese Cities in Case of Nuclear Accidents are not Realistic

             My last post was about an old evacuation plan for the Seattle area in case of nuclear war. Although the danger of nuclear war is increasing, most of the current concern about evacuation relating to nuclear issues has to do with evacuation of populated areas in case of an accident at a nuclear power plant. Since the Fukushima disaster, there has been increased concern about evacuation.

Nuclear Weapons 90 - Evacuation Plans for Seattle in Case of Nuclear Attack

             A recent story about inadequacy of Japanese evacuation plans for nuclear disasters reminded me of a related episode in my own life. Back in the mid 1970s, the U.S. government told state governments that they had to have evacuations plans for their major cities in case of nuclear attack. The states were told that if they did not comply with the federal demand they might lose federal money for some state programs.

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