Yucca Mountain<\/a>, Nevada, as a permanent nuclear waste repository.<\/p>\nI will confess that I don’t relish the thought of trucks of nuclear waste rolling along I-70, even if the canisters are designed to take anything up to and including being broadsided by a freight train.<\/p>\n
But, damn, folks, there isn’t a lot of choice in the matter. A quarter-century ago, when I was debating energy policy in high school, it was already blindingly obvious that leaving nuclear waste in rotting barrels in temporary cooling ponds around the nation was bad public policy. It’s unsafe, both from an environmental and from a security standpoint.<\/p>\n
Problem is, the whole issue has been framed as one giant, national NIMBY game. Those that don’t have waste in their states don’t want it to pass through (let alone be stored there). Those who have it, are crying in the wilderness that something has to be done before the inevitable disaster.<\/p>\n
For Strickland to take this tack in against his Senate race rival is particularly irresponsible, given that Colorado is on the sending <\/i>end when it comes to getting plutonium shipped from Rocky Flats (right next to Strickland’s congressional district) to Savannah River in South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Pretending it can just all stay where it is and that, somehow, the magical nuclear fairy will solve the problem is the height of irresponsibility.<\/p>\n
There will be accidents (or deliberate sabotage), sooner or later. Better we take some reasonable action now<\/i>, than do a lot of hand-wringing later<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No wonder the weather is a bit cooler today. It must be a cold day somewhere when I find myself agreeing with Wayne Allard (one of our Republican Senators) and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134661,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/12\/finns-moving-forward-permanent-nuclear-waste-storage.html","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":0},"title":"The Finns are moving forward with permanent nuclear waste storage","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Sep-17 7:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the radioactive elephant in the room about nuclear energy -- nuclear plants generate waste, and that waste is dangerous for tens of thousands of years, and what the hell do you do with it? The answer to date from countries using nuclear plants is to stick it in metal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/finland-nuclear-waste-repository.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49960,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/29\/the-risks-of-the-nuclear-litter-box.html","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":1},"title":"The Risks of the Nuclear Litter Box","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 29-Mar-15 10:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dude, everyone knows the danger of changing cat litter brands. The results can be truly disastrous ... Cat litter to blame for radiation leak at New Mexico nuclear waste facility View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42210,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/26\/yes-which-kitty-litter-you-choose-does-make-a-difference.html","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":2},"title":"Yes, which kitty litter you choose DOES make a difference","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-May-14 9:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are using it for the safe storage of your nuclear waste, at least.\ufeff Organic Cat Litter Chief Suspect In Nuclear Waste Accident The release of plutonium at a New Mexico nuclear dump may have been caused by a bad purchase at the pet shop. View this post on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48109,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/nuclear-waste-and-the-ten-thousand-year-problem.html","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":3},"title":"Nuclear Waste and the Ten Thousand Year Problem","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Nov-14 11:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Nuclear power (and weaponry) and the waste around it are a classic example of humanity eagerly pursuing the short term while ignoring, bungling, and\/or incessantly bickering about the long-term (dealing with climate change is another one). For all the expertise that goes into creating nuclear power, it appears that dealing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33035,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/03\/nuclear-power.html","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":4},"title":"Nuclear power","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Apr-13 9:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"We are, justifiably, scared of radioactivity and anything to do with it. Not only is it spooky-mysterious, but the association with nuclear weapons (both as used and as threatened) overshadows the whole field. \u00a0And, yes, there have been some bad incidents and there remain some unanswered questions about long-term waste\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10977,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/03\/the_scariest_coolest_scar.html","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":5},"title":"The scariest, coolest, scariest picture I’ve seen in a long time","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-May-07 8:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Barrels of radioactive waste at Hanford, Washington. Submerged in a pool of water at Hanford Site are 1,936 stainless-steel nuclear-waste capsules containing cesium and strontium. Combined, they contain over...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/hanford.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}