A new study released
today shows European leaders are
being misled over the safety of underground
disposal of highly dangerous nuclear waste
which could poison ground waters for centuries.
The European Commission
is due to publish a draft nuclear waste
directive this autumn. Deep disposal has
dominated the research into the management
of highly radioactive nuclear waste for
over 30 years and is expected to be central
to the directive. However, the Commission
has been misinformed of the dangers of deep
disposal by its most critical advisors,
the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and European
Implementing Geological Disposal Technology
Platform (IGD-TP). Both claim that a scientific
consensus has been reached and construction
should proceed [1]. However, there is evidence
to suggest that this is biased and deep
geological storage projects could have serious
problems that have not been identified because
of lack of resources and funding for independent
scrutiny.
The new study, Rock
Solid?, a scientific review of geological
disposal of high-level radioactive waste,
commissioned by Greenpeace and written by
GeneWatch UK director Dr Helen Wallace [2],
reveals serious flaws in the advice being
given to the Commission. Despite making
scientific claims, key reports produced
by the advisory bodies make little or no
reference to scientific studies. One rare
example of a referenced claim is based solely
on an unpublished note of a panel discussion
(see page 10 of Rock Solid?). Neither advisor
has conducted a literature review of research
on deep disposal. Despite these grave flaws,
the European Commission’s Research Directorate-General
appears to have accepted the advice and
is upbeat about the prospects of exporting
deep storage around Europe and to developing
countries [3].
Following her review
of scientific journal papers, Dr Wallace
comes to a far more sobering opinion of
the viability of deep disposal. Dr Wallace
says, ‘There are blanks in our understanding
of deep storage; cracks that are papered
over at our peril. We are talking about
trying to bury thousands of tonnes of highly
dangerous waste for longer than people have
existed on Earth. It would be a mind-boggling
engineering triumph which, if miscalculated,
could release highly radioactive waste into
our groundwater or seas for centuries, so
far below ground that there will be nothing
we can do about it.’
The most probable causes
of failure identified in journals include
accelerated corrosion of containers; heat
and gas formation leading to pressurisation
and cracking of the storage chamber; unexpected
chemical reactions; geological uncertainties;
future ice ages, earthquakes and human interference.
The different constitution of waste from
future nuclear reactors and its complicated
chemistry adds to the uncertainty. Dr Wallace’s
study acknowledges that computer modelling
is now advanced, but not sufficient to account
for the multiple factors of heat, mechanical
deformation, microbes and coupled gas and
water flow through fractured crystalline
rocks or clay over long timescales.
It is incredible that
the European Commission is being given a
green light when the scientists are all
clearly flashing an amber, at best. This
study yet again demonstrates that there
is no solution to the nuclear waste problem
and we should be phasing out its largest
source, nuclear power, in favour of a fully
renewable energy supply by 2050. Europe
would be mad to consider deep storage now,
in anybody’s backyard.
[1] The 2009 Euratom-funded
Vision Document of the European ‘Implementing
Geological Disposal’ Technology Platform
(IGD-TP) states that “a growing consensus
exists” that deep disposal is the most appropriate
solution to dispose of spent nuclear fuel,
high-level waste and other long-lived radioactive
wastes and that it is time to proceed to
license the construction and operation of
deep geological repositories for radioactive
waste disposal. This conclusion is supported
by the 2009 report of the EC’s Joint Research
Centre (JRC), which states that: “our scientific
understanding of the processes relevant
for geological disposal has developed well
enough to proceed with step-wise implementation".
[2] Dr Wallace has
a PhD in environmental modelling from Exeter
University and is an expert in the role
of computer modelling in policy decisions.
She is a former employee of Greenpeace UK
and gave expert evidence in the 1995 planning
inquiry into Nirex’s proposals to construct
the first stage of a nuclear waste repository
near Sellafield (the proposals were rejected).
She is currently Director of the science-policy
research group GeneWatch UK.
[3] The Director of
Energy for Research Directorate-General
stated in the foreword to the IGD-TP Vision
Document: “These [geological disposal facilities]
will not only be the first such facilities
in Europe but also the first in the world.
I am convinced that through this initiative,
safe and responsible practices for the long-term
management of hazardous radioactive waste
can be disseminated to other Member States
and even 3rd countries, thereby ensuring
the greatest possible protection of all
citizens and the environment both now and
in the future”.
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Navajo Nation adopts
five-year plan for uranium cleanup
‘WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Following a recent meeting with members
of the House Resource Committee and Navajo
Environmental Protection Agency, participants
received an update on progress in the Navajo
five-year plan to address uranium contamination
from staffers from Henry Waxman's office.
Waxman (D. CA) initiated the plan in October
of 2007 following congressional hearings
on Navajo Nation contamination, and a directive
was issued to federal agencies to collaborate
with the tribe on addressing the problems.
These agencies include the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, the Indian Health Service, the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S.
Department of Energy. Clancy Tenley and
Deborah Schechter of U.S. EPA Region 9 discussed
their agency's efforts to address uranium
contamination at abandoned mines, contaminated
structures and water sources on the reservation.
“We have plans to clean up seven structures
by this fall,” Schechter said. “The goal
is to assess and remediate at least 500
structures by the end of 2012.” Since 2007,
the U.S. EPA and the Navajo EPA have assessed
199 structures, completed 14 replacement
homes and have removed ten yards of contaminated
soil in regions across the reservation.
In regard to mining and mills, Tenley stated
that the EPA completed a multi-year effort
to assess uranium contamination in 2007.
The results revealed that 520 mines have
been identified as high-risk mines in need
of cleanup. He said that his agency's goal
is to screen all 520 mines by the end of
2011. At this time 87 mines are being screened.’
Daily Times: China to
build 1GW nuclear power plant in Pakistan
‘BEIJING: China’s main nuclear energy corporation
is in talks to build a 1GW atomic power
plant in Pakistan, a China National Nuclear
Corporation (CNNC) executive said on Monday.
China has already helped Pakistan build
its main nuclear power facility at Chashma
in Punjab, where one reactor is running
and another nearly finished, and it has
contracts to build two more there, despite
the qualms of other governments. Qiu Jiangang,
vice president of the CNNC, told a meeting
in Beijing that the company was already
looking beyond those deals to an even bigger
plant. “Both sides are in discussions over
CNNC exporting a 1GW nuclear plant to Pakistan,”
he said. Qiu confirmed the two countries
had signed contracts to build the No 3 and
No 4 reactors of about 300MW each at Chashma.
He did not give details about who was involved
in discussions for the bigger plant and
how far the talks had progressed. A senior
Pakistani government official familiar with
discussions between Pakistan and China on
nuclear cooperation said, “We are facing
acute energy shortages and these nuclear
power plants are important for us to overcome
these shortages.” “We as well as China have
said time and again that all this cooperation
is under the safeguards of the International
Atomic Energy Agency and there should not
be any worries or concerns about it,” said
the official, who demanded anonymity.’
AFP: 12 dead in Mexico
hurricane, nuclear power plant shut and
oilrigs evacuated
‘VERACRUZ, Mexico — Looters ransacked destroyed
homes and businesses in eastern Mexico Monday
after Hurricane Karl passed through, leaving
at least 12 people dead and forcing 40,000
into shelters. "The Army and navy have
been instructed to tighten security,"
President Felipe Calderon said after an
overflight of the worst-hit areas of Veracruz.
The storm roared ashore Friday, pummeling
a country already reeling from one of its
wettest seasons on record and leaving communities
flooded from the border with the US state
of Texas clear down to Mexico's Pacific
coast states. "In total we have the
death certificates of 12 people," Civil
Defense force director Laura Gurza told
a meeting assessing the damage caused by
hurricane, the first of the 2010 Atlantic
season to make landfall. Calderon toured
damaged areas in Veracruz on the Gulf coast,
where at least seven people were killed
and about 10 more remained missing, according
to authorities. Karl forced the evacuation
of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and the
shutdown of the country's nuclear power
plant, located just four kilometers (three
miles) from where the hurricane roared ashore.’
The Australian: Sarkozy
wages desert war on terror
‘FRANCE was warned to prepare for imminent
terrorist attack yesterday as Paris sent
special forces to West Africa to hunt al-Qa'ida
fighters who are holding seven hostages
in the wastelands of the Sahel. President
Sarkozy was returning early from a visit
to the United Nations last night to take
charge of what he and the terrorists call
a war between France and al-Qa'ida in the
Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algerian-led
offshoot of the international jihad movement.
The conflict intensified last week when
gunmen, assumed to be from AQIM, snatched
the seven, five of them French, from a French
uranium mining colony in northern Niger
where they worked. A team of about 80 French
military and intelligence experts, backed
by reconnaissance aircraft, arrived in Niamey
yesterday to scour the vast and lawless
hinterland of Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
French special forces are backing Mauritania
in operations against AQIM. Twelve terrorists
and six Mauritanian soldiers were killed
in an assault over the weekend. AQIM vowed
to punish France after losing men in a raid
by French and Mauritanian special forces
in July.’
