It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to imagine what a precision-guided missile can do for this canister field in SONGS ‘vastness.
If you live in Orange County or San Diego County San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant (SONGS) In the near future it became a landfill for nuclear waste. Regardless of where you live, it is wise to keep track of national and international movements in order to increase your reliance on nuclear power.
The United States entered the nuclear age in 1945 by dropping a uranium bomb on Hiroshima and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. Currently, 3.6 million pounds of this and other deadly radioactive elements are in a temporary canister on SONGS Beach and will remain there indefinitely.
Nobody knows how to safely dispose of deadly nuclear waste. Still, the climate crisis, the United States, and the world are proposing to extend the life of existing nuclear power plants and build new ones. Isn’t the world learning anything from the disasters of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima?
SONGS is currently a landfill for nuclear waste
Since SONGS closed in 2013, there has been controversy over the dry waste storage system of choice for facility operator Southern California Edison (SCE).
Like all nuclear power plants in the United States, SONGS was not designed for the storage of nuclear waste after decommissioning. NS 1982 Nuclear Waste Act Requires the construction of a geological landfill to store the country’s spent fuel for hundreds of thousands of years. However, when expectations for the Yukka Mountain repository in Nevada collapsed due to concerns about groundwater pollution, talks were held in Texas and New Mexico to create “makeshift” reservoirs.
Photos from Edison’s Southern California website
Current reality, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This means that with the unlimited storage of spent fuel elements on site, you can saddle up a nuclear power plant and never realize a repository.
By August of last year, SONGS had transferred all spent fuel elements to 123 dry storage casks, each of which was able to release the same amount of highly radioactive cesium-137 that was released in the Chernobyl accident in 1986. I have.
The SONGS canister is made of thin-walled (5/8 inch) stainless steel. Sensitive to “stress corrosion cracking” in the marine environment. They are not intended for safe maintenance, inspection, storage, or transportation.
The possible consequences of cracking are much worse than the low emissions of radiation into the atmosphere. The canister is clearly filled with helium to limit and prevent corrosion. Explosion It is caused by the ingress of air or water.
Compare this to the thick-walled (10-19 inch) drums used in most countries that are less prone to stress corrosion cracking. that is designed for maintenance, inspection, storage and transport.
Waves reaching the top of the SONGS revetment (photographer Gary Headrick).
As a waste storage location, SONGS is extremely dangerous. Located along the coast and in the seismic zone, it is prone to land movement and tsunamis caused by devastating earthquakes. The photo shows that at high tide the waves splash near the revetment.
If the cooling air vents that surround the container are blocked by sand, water, salt, or other debris, you may not be able to quickly clean the vents. The air cooling may stop, Holtec We admit the temperature can exceed 1000 ° F in a matter of days, near the maximum temperature the canister can withstand.
Because the canister is stored in a wide open and easily accessible destination, the canister’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks is also a problem.
The petition from nuclear safety advocates to move radioactive waste into safer, thicker containers has been rejected by both the SCE and the NRC.
Nuclear expansion and expansion
Originally, US nuclear reactors were allowed to operate for 25 to 40 years. The NRC has approved the extension of dozen of reactors for up to 60 years, raising concerns about component wear and tear and older operating systems.
Kareen Walker Is an Orange County resident working on nuclear waste storage issues. Dr. Allen Heather (NRC’s Senior Technical Advisor for License Renewal Aging Management) has admitted that some components cannot be inspected due to inaccessibility or high risk of radiation.
Hiser suggests inferring the condition of a non-inspectable component by scanning a similar inspectable component, but when no one knows when the non-inspectable component will fail. , This cannot eliminate the risk.
Nuclear power is neither renewable nor sustainable, and it will now cost more than solar or wind power.
It’s scary because the radioactive waste problem is not fully resolved. 50 new reactors are under construction worldwide. In the USA, 24 applications for the construction of new reactors have been submitted since 2007.
Existing dilapidated facility or 80,000 tons of spent fuel elements already produced. The argument that nuclear weapons are needed to fight global warming reflects the same stupid thinking that caused the climate crisis in the first place.
Does not generate radioactive nuclear waste. It is time to tackle the problem head on.
Sarah Mosko is a licensed psychologist and specialist in sleep disorders with a background in neurobiology and basic research and can explain the science behind current environmental problems and solutions. .. She got her PhD. The NIH Postdoc Fellowship was awarded at Princeton University, University of California, San Diego.
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More nuclear power is not a solution for the climate crisis Source link More nuclear power is not a solution for the climate crisis
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