Michael Shellenberger: Everybody wants to do something about nuclear waste. Nuclear plant operators and most House members want to bury it in Nevada. A bipartisan group of senators wants states to compete for it. And Bill Gates and other entrepreneurs want to reuse it as fuel in next generation reactors. Almost everybody is wrong to do so. Nuclear waste has never been a real problem. In fact, it’s the best solution to the environmental impacts from energy production. Consider: Every year, the lives of seven million people are cut short by waste products in the form of air pollution from burning biomass and fossil fuels; No nation in the world has a serious plan to prevent toxic solar panel and wind turbine waste from entering the global electronic waste stream; No way of making electricity other than nuclear power safely manages and pays for any its waste. In other words, nuclear power’s waste by-products aren‘t a mark against the technology, they are its key selling point.
Forbes 19th June 2018 read more »
Friends of the Earth and 30+ other environmental and citizens groups in the US have jointly called for a science and consent-based approach to finding a GDF site, saying: “The primacy of geologic disposal as the solution for nuclear waste is consistent with more than 50 years of scientific consensus … No other solutions are technically, economically or ethically viable over the long term for the environment and human society.”
