AUSTIN, Texas -- Another bad idea. What are they, cheaper by the
dozen? The Bush administration has decided to dump all the high-level
nuclear waste in America into some yet-to-be excavated tunnels at Yucca
Mountain, Nev.
Insomuch as you ever think about nuclear waste (a topic I prefer
to avoid on the grounds that it's depressing and scary -- denial seems like
a good tactic), you probably thought: "Good, Nevada. They'll like it there,
and at least it won't be here."
Wrong on both counts. Not only are Nevadans predictably
unhappy -- and also seriously irate, because Bush promised during the
campaign he would make the decision based on "the best science" --- but this
also brings nuclear garbage right to your front door. Or at least to the
closest interstate highway.
Putting the nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain is Nevada's problem.
Getting it there is ours. There are 131 nuclear plants dotted around the
nation, not to mention assorted military facilities, where the really,
really bad stuff is stored. So we're taking a 131-plus-point problem and
making it a several-hundred-thousand-point problem. They're going to put the
really, really bad stuff into trucks and railroad cars, and send it all to
Yucca -- so if you're anywhere between a nuclear power plant and Nevada, you
have a problem.
Not only does that insanely escalate the chances for a terrorist
attack -- it's a lot easier to knock over a truck than it is to fly into a
nuclear power plant -- but it makes a nuclear transportation accident almost
inevitable. How many trucks over how many highways over what period of time
will produce one horrible truck crash? You can hardly drive from Laredo to
Dallas on I-35 without seeing one anymore.
This is not one of those deals where any fool can say, "Here's a
better idea ..." No one has ever had a good idea for getting rid of nuclear
waste. As far anyone knows, it can't be gotten rid of. That's the problem,
as those citizens who are less into denial than the rest of us have been
pointing out for some time. So far, there has only been one useful
suggestion on nuclear waste -- let's stop creating more of it.
Unfortunately, the Bush-Cheney Energy Plan is not acquainted with the First
Rule of Holes -- they plan to keep digging. Their idea of a solution is to
take an intractable problem and make it into a much bigger intractable
problem.
Bush's "best science" campaign promise was pathetic, in
retrospect. Yucca Mountain is in an earthquake zone and leaks. Among those
who question its desirability as a repository site are the General
Accounting Office, Bechtel, SAIC, the Department of Energy contractor on the
site, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and Radioactive Waste
Management Associates. (For details, see the website of the Safe Energy
Communication Council, at
www.safeenergy.org.)
Probably flying well under your radar screen was a move by
Congress late last year compounding the problem still further. In late
November, under a no-debate voice vote, the House of Representatives
reauthorized an obscure thing called the Price-Anderson Act. Yes, the matter
of campaign contributions did raise its ugly head once more.
The law limits the nuclear power industry's liability in the
case of an accident. No other industry enjoys this federal protection.
Price-Andersen requires that each plant carry only $200 million in
insurance, with $9.1 billion for the entire industry. Unfortunately, Sandia
National Labs has estimated the cost of one big reactor accident at over
$500 billion.
Worse, the indirect subsidy created by Price-Andersen used to
cover only regulated and public utilities. By contrast, any new nuclear
power plants will be built by merchant generators -- like Enron -- competing
in the newly deregulated markets. This gives them an added incentive to
build cheap.
The Senate energy bill does not reauthorize Price-Anderson for
commercial reactors. If the bill were to pass as it stands, existing
reactors would continue to be covered but new ones would not. The
anti-nuclear energy coalition is hoping the Senate version will becom law,
so that the risk of doing business will actually fall on commercial
reactors, instead of taxpayers. But there's no guarantee.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web
page at
www.creators.com.
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