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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Sunday, March 13, 2011 | 8:22 p.m.
Sun Coverage
Sun coverage
WASHINGTON - The partial meltdown of several nuclear power plants around Japan as a result of a tsunami that wrought untold havoc there over the weekend is forcing a discussion about nuclear safety in the United States that could have big consequences for Nevada.
Development of nuclear as an energy alternative has been getting a huge political push in recent months, with both the Obama administration and the new Republican majority in the House favoring investment in the field, including restarting construction on nuclear power plants that have been waiting in the wings since the Three Mile Island incident in the ‘70s.
That new attention has, in turn, raised the question of what’s to happen with Yucca Mountain -- Nevada’s potential waste-dump site that hasn’t yet been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but hasn’t been scratched either.
Yucca Mountain has been off the agenda under the Obama administration’s last few budget requests, but now that Republicans are dictating much of the process, it’s back on. Last month, House leadership made sure to include a prohibition against using federal funds to wind down operations at the site in their fiscal 2011 budget reduction bill, on the rationale that the nuclear industry can’t expand until there is a place to dump spent waste.
While the Obama administration hasn’t taken the same tack on Yucca, there does seem to have been an inevitability about the issue for the last few months. “Clean” power nuclear energy is the one area in which the Obama administration’s renewable-friendly and the Republicans’ oil-and-gas friendly energy priorities seem to intersect, meaning a broad roll-out of nuclear power facilities was to be a likely fulcrum of any greater energy deal.
But the Japan incident already seems to be giving many in Washington pause about just how great an idea that nuclear roll-out might be.
Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has been a backer of nuclear, said Sunday on "Face the Nation" that he thinks the U.S. should abandon its plans for nuclear expansion for now.
“I think we’ve got to kind of quietly, quickly put the brakes on until we can absorb what has happened in Japan,” he said.
Other senators in both parties have said the meltdown should only push the United States to direct more attention to developing safety and security measures for new facilities.
But to date, discussion about the potential for nuclear accidents in the United States has centered around problems of transportation, faulty machinery and human error -- not the kind of cataclysmic natural disasters that nobody can predict, fully safeguard against or control.
While much of the United States is susceptible to tsunamis, there are several active fault lines and areas of volcanic activity not far from where existing nuclear power plants, nuclear reactors for research purposes and other proposed commercial sites are located. The West Coast is the worst: in California, home to some of the country’s oldest licensed nuclear power plants, there are at least two full-scale commercial plants near the San Andreas fault, the country’s most earthquake-prone region.
While nuclear experts have argued that the plants in the U.S. have been built with the utmost attention to earthquake resistance, it’s also the case that the nuclear power plants currently in operation in the United States all date back, in part or in whole, to construction dates of more than 30 years ago.
But now that the issue is on the table, it appears the fear of an accident that has gripped Nevadans for several years is now spreading to other states’ representatives as they wait to see the full extent of the damage that will result from the Japanese crisis -- and decide if for them, too, the risks of nuclear power hit too close to home. If they do, it could be the final nail in the nuclear Yucca project that so many Nevadans have waited for.
After what is happening in Japan, nuclear experts
are talking about retro-fitting nuclear plants in
California.
Good idea.
As for Yucca Mountain, another bad George Bush
idea.
KEEP YUCCA DEAD.
When Yucca Mountain gets hit with a Tsunami, nuclear radiation will be the least of all worries.
Whether or not new nuclear energy is a part of our future or not, old nuclear energy is part of the present and future.
We have need to dispose of water currently stored on-site at plants throughout the country.
I am very sorry to see what Japan has been faced with this past week and my sympathies are with them. The dangers of nuclear power are certainly real and ever present and this is a reminder to the wrong headed people who fill the conservative side of the aisle about how wrong they are on energy policy. I don't think they will change what minds they have though as cognitive dissonance rules their lives.
Japan's nuclear power industry was considered one of the safest in the world.
Okay, all you liberals who are against coal-fired power plants: Is this nuclear risk what you prefer? You're against Yucca Mountain, right? Coal-fired plants are safe, efficient and, with today's technology, pretty clean. Studies have shown that we have enough coal reserves in the U.S. for 200+ years of power generation. Yet you and your president want to stop coal plants and coal mines which employ hundreds of thousands of people directly and indirectly. It would be wise to keep using coal today and into the future. Don't buy-into Harry Reid's "green energy" utopia nonsense.
There is actually no similarities with the problem in Japan with their reactors and storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain Project (YMP).
But, the entire Republican Party in power in the House and the Senate are making it some kind of priority, especially those from areas that stand to gain from it...specifically Washington and South Carolina.
The danger is already evident. In the State of Washington, they already have nuclear waste leaking; detected very, very close to standing ground water. It's guaranteed that if YMP happens, Washington would be very glad to ship it in Hefty trash bags by the tons...anything....just to get rid of it...because they love to generate the waste, but they don't know how to store it...nor do they want to store it.
They would love to get this back on the docket so they can move tons and tons of nuclear waste out of their States.
What every southern Nevada should take issue with is the fact that those people don't control Nevada. WE control what happens in southern Nevada. The overwhelming majority of residents here don't want YMP to happen.
Now, if only I could get a Congressman (Heck) who shows some cajones and tells the other Republicans to go pound sand and take it somewhere else...and not kowtowing to every single thing they want on this issue...then southern Nevada would be well represented in the House. Lately, all rhetoric and talk about YMP emitting from Congressman Heck's esophagus is always hinting at promoting YMP. This will prove to be his political demise...making him a one termer.
"Don't buy-into Harry Reid's "green energy" utopia nonsense."
Teabaggers have Obama Derangement Syndrome so they automatically take the opposite position on anything he or Reid are for. If Obama said babies are cute deranged baggers would point out how ugly babies are.
It's a incurable sickness.
hey karoun...
do you know how mountains are made...
YUCCA IS ITSELF IN AN EARTHQUAKE ZONE!!!
FYI: We already have nuclear waste stored at the NV Test Site. Yucca Mtn. is a small part of the Test Site. Waste is regularly shipped in using our highways and roads.
This is very scary...I agree with some of the commentary regarding finding new safe energy sources. I can't understand why people are pushing for energy sources that could destroy the futures of our children and younger generations to come. I would like to live to see my children grow up and possibly my grandchildren if at all possible. I really hope this is a sign that we need to invest our money into finding a safe energy source and a safe place to store the waste we have made. I live on the west coast and do not want it here. What about Alaska?? Is it possible to safely store the waste there?? Any ideas or thoughts are welcome.
let's do some math boys and girls...
ready...
when all is said and done...
how much money will we have flushed down that cesspool known as iraq???
hmmm???
a war based on lies...
which will ultimately inure to the benefit of iran...
anyone???
$2,000,000,000,000...
that's trillion with a T...
got it...
how many solar facilities and wind facilities can you build for $2 trillion...
PLENTY!!!
what a frickin waste of money...
all brought on by w the maggot and cheney the evil doer and our stupid pathetic republican friends...
yippie!!!
My daughter-in-law is doing more lasting damage to the grand children than nuclear power! And it will last their lifetime also. Our local judge is allowing to happen, he turned a blind eye.
hey allaroundtown...
too frickin funny...
There is no comparison between storing nuclear waste and a melt down of nuclear rod in a nuclear power plant. This shows how stupid the government and opponents of Yucca mountain are. Don't make something out of nothing, which this is. Nuclear rods of a plant have nothing to do with Yucca mountain and doesn't even belong in the same conversation. Yucca mountain is for nuclear waste storage. Since we spent billions of dollars, we should use it, it will also be great to pay down Nevada's debt.
When a Nevadan steps outside of her home into the heat and light from the nuclear power plant up there 93 million miles away, she knows where she is and, the sad part is that she is not grabbing the rays to power her A/C, TV and fridge.
The technology is simple, abundant as sunshine and its byproduct -wind- and cheap compared to the devastation Japan is facing. Why we have chosen to go with combustion is the history of growth here. Coal and other fossils were easily converted into Kilowatts; now that some of the fallout is upon us in climate change, TMI and nuke storage issues, we have barely even begun to consider our plight. Rather we have consumed like drunken sailors and passed on the bill to the generations.
It's time to gather our wits and take a long view of tomorrow's resource of choice.
We are blessed with the curse of too much; how we proceed will tell who we are. If we go much further down the 'easy come, easy go' road of fossils and load the enemies from the land of the crude with our shrinking dollars, then we are fools.
Should we find our resource of choice hitting us in the face a worthy companion, our tomorrows will arrive on golden beams, and then national security worries, energy-inflation, cost of goods and deficits will resolve themselves because we made the smart move, not the easy one.
Kids will think out-of-the-box. Houses will get better. Transportation avenues will adjust. Skies will clear.
anybody who supports yucca...
is not form nevada...
and if they are from nevada...
they are from northern nevada...
and if they are from southern nevada...
they are in the business...
and if they are not in the business...
THEY ARE FOOLS!!!
stop yucca mountain...
WE DON'T WANT ARE KIDS TO GLOW IN THE DARK!!!
Instead of not building any new nuclear plants we need to build new ones so the older ones that are a problem waiting to happen can be safely shut down, as they were state of art when they were first built 30-40 yrs ago.we need the power that they can deliver and wind and solar power is not enough to do it on their own,nobody wants to use coal and our goverment doesnt seem to want us to use natural gas and only wants to push ethynol in our gas even thou it is raising the price of food thur the roof.So when the temp hits 115 this summer and you keep turning your air condtioning up think of how it would be without nuclear power to help out.just as you trade in your old car for a more newer more efficent car we have to invest in new power plants with better tech ideas.
More individuals have been killed while working on Wind Farms than nuclear power plants in the US.
Airweare...said it all.
We've seen what can happen to nuclear plants,the results of which will be around for a thousand plus years.That is providing the "containment" building doesn't decenigrate before then.
Robert2,
according to Abt's reports, the number of deaths attributable to power plants in the US varies between 13,000 and 17,000 a year.
According to studies of cancer from the relatively minor Three Mile Island disaster in 79, the deaths and human suffering are significantly higher than wind mill operations, with all due respect to your ill-conceived figures.
What do you do this for? Make stuff up and put it out there for grins??
Bugs? Are you talking about bugs? Geese? Ducks? Pigeons?? Or individual people?
Are you counting the seven deaths related to solar plants as nuclear power plants? They actually are nuclear power plants in a way.
They gather the waves, the rays and the power from the only nuke we need if we stop polluting the brains with garbage like you espouse, sir.
The photovoltaic & solar construction projects in Nevada are on hold.There currently is noone working on them.Call your Senators & tell them to get those projects going.
Airweave
The days of the Three Mile Island scare tactics need to end. We are dealing with a whole new ballgame here.
Even one of the founders of Green Peace has said nuclear reactors were so safe he would live at one.
We have had nuclear reactors on naval vessels since I guess the mid 50's with ZERO incidents.
The Nuclear Power Plant industry is the MOST regulated industry in our country. Nothing even comes close.
Are you stating that 13,000-17,000 people have died in nuclear power plants?
Or are you referring to all power plant deaths? Hydo-electric, solar, wind, nuclear, coal.
In recent history, more individuals have been killed while working on wind mills than working on nuclear power plants. I am certainly not including the Three Mile Island disaster. Nor would you like me to include deaths while building and using Dutch windmills that have been around for what...hundreds of years.
Nuclear power IS safe. Proven safe with a history of safety. The earlier years had hard valuable lessons we learned from. The industry has grown since the 1970's as has computers, jets and communications.
You would have us believe nothing has changed.
I have nothing against green power. I am all for Americans getting off the grid by producing their own power. But I am also for nuclear power. I saw it used on the Submarine I was assigned to and I believe in it.
Attempting to associate LOCA events in Japan with a nuclear repository in America is as laughable and ignorant as selling above ground nuclear testing exibition tickets to tourists visiting Nevada.
1 pound of uranium is equilvalent in energy to 33 tons of coal for those questioning why nuclear power electrcial generation is vital in attempting to meet world-wide energy needs going forward -- note the steam turbine/generator process by which ~80% of all electrical generation is produced is only about 33% efficient -- meaning most of the thermal energy produced is lost within the system processes converting thermal energy into electical energy -- which is why it is desirable to have an initial heat source (fuel) which is efficient in producing large amounts of thermal energy (heat) per unit volume mass and this is precisely why uranium, preferably enriched is an ideal source relative to current fuel alternatives utilized in the steam turbine/generator process.
For those wondering where spent fuel from commerical nuclear electrical generating plants will be kept for long-term storage -- right now, the plan is to keep the spent fuel right at the commerical power plant sites -- the really question is where does the military plan to store their high-level nuclear waste since the repository at Yucca is the only legal site in America developed as a deep geologic repository?
As a side note to the situation in Japan where ocean water is reportedly being used to quench hot reactor cores -- one has to be very careful when quenching hot masses with large amounts of relatively cold water the process must be done very slowly or a phenomenon known as thermal shock will occur which will literally shatter the fuel's cladding creating additional core degradation, radiation and containment challenges.
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my god...
our radical tea bagging fraud governor is already screwing our children enough by gutting education...
now you clowns want them to glow in the dark too...
stop it...
you don't live here...
stop it...
that nuclear waste wasn't created here...
don't frickin ship it here...
you made it...
keep it right where it lies...
and leave us the eff alone!!!
France develops 80% of it's Utility power from Nuclear plants without any accidents. We should learn to parlez French for starters.
Earthquake+Yucca Mountain = disaster.
Carlos Mencia said it best when he said
"Duh dee de deeeeee......"
Nuclear is safe, huh?
Why then could one suppose our country has not brought online a new nukie in 30+ years?? Right after Three Mile Island's partial meltdown? Why would one suppose that both Germany and Switzerland are stopping the extended contracts for their nukes?
Comparing the submarine which you served on (I'm in Annapolis now) to nukes the size of Japan's or France's is hot dogs to horses, my friend. Nobody is saying that technology has not improved. What some of us are saying is not that at all. My particular slant is that first of all the abundance of juice proves the old adage that 'nature abhors a vacuum' - that given gobs of juice, we'll find a way to spend it up. And that's a fool's paradise -look at Las Vegas...from a hundred miles away, lighting up the desert like a bomb, so to speak.
We leave the A/C at 70, crank up the incandescent lights, turn on the oven and heat water inside with electric resistance heat while our antiquated refrigerators suck $300+ out of our pockets annually, and we never give a thought to what we use WISELY.
In a better world, we would accept the rays from the sun and utilize them rather than risking our national security and deficits to Ghadafi, Saudis, etc., but this is precisely where we are in our appreciation of the curse of free energy arriving daily in such mass quantities that we PAY to have it hauled out of our homes.
Two links, IAEA:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/...
Abt's report
http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/cle...
Check 'em out bro. 30,000 a year die from power plants operations.
Then there's the issue of storage, reliance on nations with radioactive deposits, terrorism and lost income and wasted income when the sun does its daily deal for free. If we could just accept perfection and not wish for squanderable quantities of juice, we'd have way more with way less hassle, danger, bombs, financial insecurity, etc.
It just seems so obvious when one adds up the tally that we are headed the wrong way. Am I nuts or what??
The Yucca Mountain hole in the ground sits on
an EARTHQUAKE ZONE.
ONLY IDIOTS, FOOLS AND MORONS WOULD STORE
NUCLEAR WASTE THERE.
YUCCA WILL NEVER BE SAFE.
Airweare
"Why would one suppose that both Germany and Switzerland are stopping the extended contracts for their nukes?"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a decision last year to extend the life of the country's 17 nuclear power stations would be suspended for three months.
C'mon, a 3 month suspension is not "STOPPING".
As a politician don't you think she is also covering her butt?
The 30,000 a year deaths is attributed to coal pollution. We were talking about deaths at a Nuclear Reactor. By the way the website you quote, Ecomall, is decidedly left of center.
While the size of a nuclear reactor on a sub is indeed smaller, the technologies used are the same while the hazard is no less. Especially for those who are on the sub.
Again, I am not against Green. We should go forward in every aspect of renewable energies. It creates jobs and it is clean.
But, I am for nuclear power.
Bob "Mothra" List is to blame. He would shut down all of Las Vegas just so he can get his money from the Nuke industry.
The nuke industry just dumped a lot of money on the Heritage Foundation so they can advertise on FOX and talk radio.
It is better that the money comes from Heritage, Cato, etc. than the nuke industry directly.
Typical right wing echo machine. Big Corporations, Hertitage, Hilesdale College, Cato, NPRI, etc. then ads on talk radio and FOX.
The money is laundered through talk radio and FOX.
Birdie, again prove to us or provide data that people glow in the dark from Yucca Mt. I figured you are a Californian that doesn't know anything about Yucca mt.
Teamster, so you want Yucca Mt closed and all your union brothers and sisters out of a job right? Talk about hypocrite for that.
Dippy; please site links besides huffington post, that lady sounds like your boogers are stuck in her voice, but I guess that's all you read in Illinois.
Mred; stop listening to talk radio and get out your coloring books instead.
Robert2,
Abt Associates who did the study is about as center of center as one could get; but as Eco spread the word about the results, I understand that some people will try to deny the implications simply on the grounds that fairy left-wingers are supporting a shift away from the mercury-laden, CO2 dumping acid-rain machines that disrupt lives of coal miners, pollute groundwater and waste the sky's ability to shed heat from re-radiation back into the universe.
Fine, support your nukies with half-lives of nukie-dookie lingering thousands of generations, that invite all kinds of terrorists and that waste our money with failing protection of our piles of danger mounding up at all the plants and require billions in aid to countries where the radioactive deposits happen to be.
Great thinking! Pass on the trouble to generations so we can have WAAY more power than we really need so we light up the sky for a HUNDRED miles at night and shine on, bro.
I hope you don't mind if some of us get all we need from the sun, crops, methane from cattle and chickens and engender some respect in the hearts of our grandchildren for the gift of life as we KNEW it.
hey Hopkins,
Do you want it black and white??
Either one is for coal burning or for nukes?
Come back to this planet. We have colors, hues, shades of grey and spots, speckles, freckles and lines of contrast that do NOT seem evident in your world of B/W.
No in-between, no both, no other? Great argument!!
Just another liberal fairy left wing wing-nut
Airweare
"I hope you don't mind if some of us get all we need from the sun, crops, methane from cattle and chickens and engender some respect in the hearts of our grandchildren for the gift of life as we KNEW it."
I guess I am not making myself clear. So, I will state for the third time, that I am not agaist green. I am all for it.
If we as a nation today stopped all coal burning and nuclear plants, industry would come to a halt. People would not have energy to warm there homes or heat their stoves to brew that cup of tea.
So, just stopping, does not work. We need nuclear energy now, we need coal energy now.
Not everyone in this country has the economic resource to go out and fit their homes with enough solar panels and wind mills to support life as we know it. There are some areas of this country where solar won't work because it is too cold or has too much cloud cover. What is your solution for those lucky people? How do you propose heating New York City or Chicago. News flash...there is not enough solar or wind mill companies in the world to accomodate. What is your solution? Please don't say a wood burning stove because now we are cutting down all the trees. How do propose to heat a home in Brooklyn? Who are you to tell the rest of us how to live? Your ideas have merit but they will take decades to enact.
I am for green energy but I am also for nuclear energy because it is not realistic to just turn off the heat on citizens.
When Yucca Mountain gets hit with a Tsunami, nuclear radiation will be the least of all worries
****
I wouldn't worry about a tsunami - but I sure as hell would be worried about a 7.9 earthquake which in all probability is likely.
You got me Robert! Nabbed by reality.
That's why we need to start today to implement energy considerations which in 40 years will have altered the landscape. No, it won't happen overnight, but kicking the can down the road doesn't get us where we need to be. Vegas would BOOm from solar installations and Brooklyn needs insulation, geo-thermal heat pumps and a bunch of energy-savvy folks to upgrade what they have, sieves that waste all kinds of power.
I got your point the first shot, and I may have skirted the issue of numbers of deaths in CONSTRUCTION of wind mills and nuke plants, but the bigger issue here is the incredible blessing of the curse of too much free energy arriving daily in Clark County, and Washoe, etc.
Don't get me wrong, Sailor. I am not for turning off the heat on anybody, even a New Yorker! In my gigs here on the East coast, Annapolis, Baltimore, DC etc. I see SOO many opportunities to bring changes that a savvy fella like yourself would go ape trying to alter stupidity inculcated and repeated house after house, commercial building after commercial building.IT'S AMAZING HOW much WE WASTE. We got to start somewhere sometime - PLANNING, EDUCATING AND IMPROVING...OR ELSE WE'LL GIVE IT ALL AWAY.
Thanks for the dialogue and input. You have the inner strength and a good sense of what we ought to be doing - - GO GREEN WHILE WE SHUT DOWN THE COAL MINES, PLANTS AND NUKES IN THE NEXT 20 - 40 YEARS!
Airweare
You are right, we do waste energy. You are right, we could do sooo much more to bring changes.
It is a pity that our leaders, notice I did not single out Dems or Repubs, have kicked the can and have totally abdicated their responsibility for the good of our country as a whole.
There have been think tanks that have given the solutions to our problems. It is not as if no one knew what to do. We all knew what to do but didn't do it.
Both sides of the aisle are corrupt on this one. I did believe President Obama, yes I did vote for him, was going to change some of this around. Again, just more of the same broken promises.
I personally have made plans to install solar out here in Henderson when we save enough $$$ to make it happen. I may not be able to cover 100% of our needs but hopefully these solar panels will be far more efficient and at least cover 80-90%.
Those Japanese chaps are really being challenged in controlling their situation -- before and after photos indicate significant destruction of facilities, specifically containment structures -- hydrogen explosions, fires, core melt-downs, high-radiation releases, complete geometry dis-configuration with loss of cooling, control and containment -- meaning there are no procedural actions which exist to bring the situation under control at this point.
These chaps immediately need outside technical assistance - they're continuing to lose the battle.
Nearly as tragic as Chernobyl
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Harley makes a good point for Divine Intervention!!
Perhaps in an odd way, this shaking has destroyed not just nuke plants, lives and construction, but something more significant in the long run - our firm belief that with all our terrific intelligence and control of physics, electrons and radioactive elements that being huge GENIUSES, veritable Masters of the Universe, that maybe we ain't such hot dogs after all.
It has shaken us to the point that we must all stand back and see our frailties on a tiny planet, a little blue ball in a big black sky all alone.
We need more reverence for our stupidity, for what we can't know - than for all our understanding - as we are still weak mortals doing stuff on the cheap and hoping our humble hovels don't collapse or explode.
I had heard the reactors were American designed. I hope they have some of the designers on hand. They would of been the first people I would of put on a plane for Japan.
No procedures means having to think outside the box. It means someone has to step up and be accountable if things get worse.
Divine intervention -- lol wasn't that what initiated these tragedies?
Reminds one of Apollo Thirteen updates -- tough viewing from a technical aspect -- an extremely challenging situation to recover from -- summons the robots?
History in the making - unparalleled "danger, danger Will Robinson" type viewing value.
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So Harley,
some divine creature donned a mask of human flesh, snuck down to Earth on the sly and invented nukes?? LOL
If something like this actually happened, we'd know about it right??
I stole the line from a song, little blue ball. I felt so damn guilty about it, I woke up at 3 something and apologized so i could go back to sleep...g'night y'all and be honest from now on - no more passing on the problems forever just to get free power for now!
Nukes invented by gods. red ones with horns and huge egos maybe.. lol
Three Mile Island and Chernobyl will pale in comparison to this ghastly tragedy. It will impact the universe like, well, an Earthquake.
The explosions today are just the beginning of what will prove fatal for many and a slow, agonizing death for thousands.
It may well hamper nuclear's impact down the road.
It may force us into a new frame of reference and reverence for the sunlight and spring breezes we take for granted.
There are many nuclear power plants sitting on or near fault lines. Yucca Mountain was never a SAFE storage place. High level radiation is scheduled to sit OUTSIDE the tunnel for years. Rain or other natural events will poisen the ground water which flows to Lake Mead, YOUR DRINKING WATER SOURCE. If you think this safe for Las Vegas, I suggest you think about the serious health risks, leading to cancer and death, especially of the young and senior citizens. Time to wake up so that Nevada does not become a hazardous waste dumping ground to rest of the nation. Marlene Rogoff, Candidate for Mayor of Las Vegas