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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> February
> February 6, 1998:
Hour Two: Nuclear Waste Storage / Science Budget
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In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste
Policy Act, which, among other things, directed the
Department of Energy to begin building a national,
long-term storage area for civilian nuclear wastes.
In 1983, utility companies using nuclear generators
began to pay into a fund for the storage facility -
money that came from a charge of one-tenth of a
cent per kilowatt/hour paid by the utilities'
customers. And at the end of January, 1998, the
Department of Energy was supposed to have completed
the storage facility and be able to accept the over
70,000 tons of nuclear waste material currently
being stored at sites around the country.
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Drums of hazardous waste
awaiting long-term disposal
(photo courtesy of the U.S.
DOE)
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Unfortunately, the DOE isn't done building the
storage facility yet. In fact, the site is still in the
early planning stages. Although they have spent over $6
billion from the $14 billion in the utilities' fund, the
facility, located at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, may not be
ready to accept wastes until 2010 - if ever.
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Part of the problem is that nuclear waste is the
ultimate Not-In-My-Backyard issue - many people
that live in Nevada, including several members of
Congress, aren't pleased that their state is
scheduled to become the sole repository of the
nation's nuclear waste. People in other states
aren't pleased at the distances that waste products
will have to be carried to reach Yucca Mountain,
citing concerns over the risks of transporting such
huge amounts of hazardous material.
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Workers in a test tunnel under
the Yucca Mountain site. (DOE photo)
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On the other side, the nuclear plant operators are
up in arms, and are suing the DOE for breach of contract.
Many temporary storage facilities at power plants are nearly
full - the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association,
estimates that 27 plants will have filled their storage
areas by the end of this year. Eighty plants may be full by
2010. And it's not just a power company problem. Nuclear
isotopes are used in medicine and in research in biology,
chemistry, and other sciences , producing radioactive wastes
that need to be disposed of. Current legislation in Congress
would create a centralized, temporary facility to hold the
wastes - but the Department of Energy and President Clinton
oppose the move, saying that it would take money and effort
away from the drive to create a permanent storage solution.
On this segment of Science Friday, we'll talk about the
controversy over nuclear wastes - who should store them, and
where.
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This week, the President announced his proposed budget for the
1999 fiscal year, including $78.2 billion dollars for federally-supported
research projects. $38 billion of that money would be devoted
to civilian research. The source of the money is controversial
- the proposed settlement with tobacco companies, which has not
yet been finalized.
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"By spending money that may not exist, the President is putting funding
for his new focus on science in jeopardy," said F. James Sensenbrenner,
Jr, chair of the House Committee on Science, in a statement on Tuesday.
Sensenbrenner went on to say that the money should not all be devoted to
science - that it was more important to reduce the debt or "return money
to taxpayers."
Clinton's proposed budget includes a $1.15 billion increase for the
National Institutes of Health (making a total of $14.8 billion) and
a $340 million increase in funding for the National Science Foundation
(bringing the total to $3.8 billion). NASA's budget would be cut by
$173 million, to $13.4 billion - but reducing costs of some programs
would still allow the space agency to fully fund most of its planned
programs for the coming year.
On this segment of Science Friday, we'll talk dollars and cents...
and whether or not the science budget - and its origins - make sense.
Guests:
Lake Barrett
Acting Director of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management
Department of Energy
Washington, D.C.
Mike McCarthy
Administrator
Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition
St. Paul, MN
Dan Greenberg
Editor-at-large
Science and Government Report
Washington, D.C.
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Office of Waste Management
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management
The Yucca Mountain Project
WIPP, the Waste Isolation Pilot
Program for military wastes
The Nuclear Energy Institute (an industry
trade association)
The President's
Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 1999
The House Committee on Science
The AAAS R &
D Budget and Policy Project
The National
Science Foundation's statement on the budget proposal
The National
Institutes of Health's statement on the budget proposal
NASA background
info on the proposed budget
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