New England governors "wish" high-level radioactive waste away

Seemingly suffering from a bad case of wishful thinking, a coalition of New England governors has written Energy Secretary Steven Chu urging that DOE remove irradiated nuclear fuel from their states as soon as possible. Perhaps the governors haven't kept up on the news for awhile, but there is nowhere for the waste to go away to. Ironically, their pressure might just backfire on them -- in late 2008, DOE reported to Congress and the President that there is need for a second repository (never mind that the first one has just been cancelled, so that means two new repositories are needed) for high-level radioactive waste disposal. And just as it did in the 1980s, DOE is sniffing around New England again, at granite geological formations, such as Sebago Lake ME, Hillsboro NH, and locations in VT for "suitable" sites to bury forever deadly high-level radioactive waste. The governors also claim that decommissioned nuclear power plant sites, such as Maine Yankee, Yankee Rowe in MA, and Connecticut Yankee could be readily returned to productive use. The problem is, despite NRC assurances to the contrary, the sites are still radioactively contaminated, posing health risks to future residents and visitors for a long time to come.

Barnwell South Carolina dump closes to all but three states

A successful campaign waged by the Sierra Club and others ensured that, starting July 1, 2008, South Carolina would no longer play host to the country's "low-level" radioactive waste, largely originating from civilian nuclear reactors. Aside from the three "compact" states - South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut - 36 states now face the reality of having nowhere to send their "low-level" waste. Of course, the first step, as advocated by Beyond Nuclear and others, is to stop making more waste.