11/9/2006 6:16:00 AM Nuclear waste industry targets Ohio
David Anderson
Plans to ramp up the nation's nuclear power industry could turn into an economic boon or environmental nightmare for the Buckeye State.
The federal government's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership calls for the development of new technology and new facilities to recycle spent nuclear fuel rods.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intends to issue site-study grants in order to locate the best places to build fuel-rod recycling centers. Among the grant applicants is
The Southern Ohio Nuclear Integration Cooperative (SONIC), a non-profit company pushing hard to bring nuclear recycling to the small community of Piketon.
Piketon is no newcomer to nuclear energy.
During the Cold War, the nearby Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant produced enriched uranium for nuclear warheads and reactors.
The plant provided job opportunities in a region plagued with low wages and high unemployment.
But by the time the plant closed, it left many workers sick and dying from radiation exposure. Clean-up efforts continue to this day and significant contamination remains at the site.
Once again, as it has in the past, the nuclear industry brings promise of job growth to places like Piketon. But do economic benefits outweigh environmental and human health risks?
In her recent book, "Nuclear Power Is Not The Answer," Dr. Helen Caldicott warns readers that fuel rod recycling is environmentally and economically unfeasible.
She says spent nuclear fuel rods are extremely dangerous to handle and difficult to store. Just a few seconds of exposure to a spent fuel rod can be lethal.
She notes spent rods radiate so much thermal heat after being pulled from a reactor that "they must therefore be stored for thirty to sixty years in a heavily shielded building and continually cooled by air or water." And reprocessing the rods to extract re-usable plutonium introduces too many risks, including "dangerous environmental radioactive releases" and "worker contamination."
The lure of short-term economic infusion won't compensate for the long-term environmental and human health damage done if Piketon becomes a recycling center for the nation's nuclear waste.
So-called "clean energy" touted by nuclear power advocates has a lethal track record when it comes to worker and public safety.
The bid to reintroduce nuclear industry worksites in a region permanently scarred by radiation pollution threatens more than the immediate Piketon vicinity.
Transportation of spent fuel rods from all points of the compass to the recycling center would expose many Ohioans to risks of accidental radiation releases while en route.
The federal government's push to fire up the nuclear power industry demands scrutiny and vigilance to make sure that the Buckeye State doesn't become the dumping ground for the nation's radioactive waste.
David Anderson is a former public radio news producer and reporter in Columbus, Ohio.
