- STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Since
the start of the nuclear era, highly radioactive waste has been crossing
continents and oceans in search of a secure and final resting place.
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- Nearly all countries produce nuclear waste, some types
of which can remain radioactive for thousands of years, but they cannot
agree on the best way to store it.
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- At present highly radioactive waste is put into interim
storage where it has to sit for 30-40 years for its radioactivity and heat
production to decline. It is still hazardous and should be stored somewhere
permanently.
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- In many countries it is unclear who will pay for the
cost divided over hundreds, even hundreds of thousands of years. Utilities
could end up with a bigger bill than expected.
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- Most high-level waste, the most dangerous kind, is spent
fuel from the over 400 nuclear power reactors in more than 30 countries.
The dismantling of nuclear weapons adds to the pile.
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- Even nuclear-free states produce waste from industry,
hospitals providing radiation therapy, and research centers.
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- Experts say technology exists for secure underground
deposits which could last millions of years. Most countries plan to seal
the highly hazardous waste in containers and store it 1,640-3,280 feet
underground.
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- Skeptics say it could be safe for decades or even centuries,
but at some point it would be bound to leak or be attacked by terrorists.
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- "If there isn't a responsible solution to deal with
nuclear waste, it may be better to keep it above ground for a while longer
when we are looking for technology that is safer," said Martina Krueger,
who works for the environmental organization Greenpeace in Sweden.
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- TO OPEN OR NOT?
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- Some politicians have demanded that the repositories
are built so that future generations can open them and eliminate the waste
with the help of new technology.
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- Others say that would also leave the deposits vulnerable
to potential social chaos thousands of years down the line.
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- If waste is safe in interim storage, why not keep it
there?
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- "Sure it's safe...but what we have to communicate
are the trade-offs," said Thomas Sanders from Sandia National Laboratories,
owned by the U.S. government.
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- Some nuclear plants are already running into the limits
of their storage capacity. And since the September 11, 2001 attacks on
the United States attention has turned to individual plants and whether
these can be protected from terrorist attacks.
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- European Union countries plan to build repositories by
around 2020, but some have not even started considering sites. In 2001
Finland became the first and so far only EU state to decide on a site for
a final storage.
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- The United States plans to deposit waste from its 103
nuclear plants beneath the Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The site should open
in 2010, but faces local protests and legal hurdles.
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- Critics say big central repositories would again increase
the risk of accidents or theft because the nuclear waste has to be transported
to them from each plant.
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- WHO PAYS?
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- In many cases it is unclear for how long nuclear waste
is the liability of the firm causing it, and when the state takes over.
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- This makes it tough for utilities to calculate the cost,
especially if the repositories are built in such a way that they have to
be guarded for security reasons.
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- "It is difficult to give precise costs because France
hasn't decided on a strategy on long-term waste management," said
Yves le Bars, chairman of ANDRA, the national radioactive waste management
agency in France, the EU's biggest nuclear power.
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- "We say it will take between 15 to 25 billion euros
to build a repository, operate it and close it for the existing facilities,"
he said. This would cover high-level waste from France's 58 nuclear plants,
assuming fuel would be reprocessed.
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- Finding a location for a dump is one of the biggest hurdles.
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- In South Korea, the state tried for years to find a county
willing to host a repository for low and intermediate level waste. Finally
this year, Buan county applied for the deposit and suggested Wi-do island
as a host.
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- The island has 1,000 inhabitants, most of them fishermen.
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- "They decided to accept the repository because the
government is paying a tremendous financial package," said Myung Jae
Song, general manager at the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company, the
world's fifth largest producer of nuclear power.
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- Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), suggested in early December that countries should consider
shared storage, even though no state should be forced to deal with another's
atomic waste.
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- At Eurajoki, site of Finland's final repository, people
were upset by the idea that their town could one day start importing foreign
waste, said local politician Altti Lucander.
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- "It causes confusion and may lead to there being
no acceptance for national deposits," Lucander said.
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- Additional reporting by Mark John in Paris
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