The 32-year old watchdog group Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of Illinois, which hosted the Dec. 2012 "Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High" conference co-sponsored by Beyond Nuclear and Friends of the Earth, has published a press release about Illinois being at the top of the target list for "consolidated interim storage" of high-level radioactive waste, as advocated by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, as well as draft U.S. Senate legislation.
NEIS cites a 2012 study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which states:
“…the consolidated ISFSI [independent spent fuel storage] site in Illinois is the single optimized site for an ISFSI solution when only [spent nuclear fuel] at orphaned reactors is considered relative to siting a consolidated ISFSI.”
NEIS points out that the high-level radioactive wastes currently stored at recently closed reactors at Crystal River, FL, Kewaunee, WI and San Onofre, CA, along with the on-site wastes at long-closed reactors such as Zion 30 miles north of Chicago, would be first in line to ship to "centralized interim storage" if the Senate bill is enacted. More.