I toured Darlington Station in 1990 as a student and seeing the waste in a pool I learned that a long term deep underground storage solution was going to be resolved “shortly”. That was 23 years ago.
So I was stunned to read in the New Scientist, 16 February 2013 Down in the dumps, that of 437 nuclear power reactors in 31 countries around the world not one has a high-level radioactive waste repository. Zero. “The typical lifespan of a nuclear power plant is 60 years. The waste form nuclear power is dangerous for up to one million years. Clearly, the waste problem is not going to go away any time soon.” Say William M. Alley and Rosemarie Alley.
Image: Andrzej Krauze
As I read in the Toronto Star today, it reports that up to $24 billion will be required to build and operate a deep storage facility in Ontario for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste. This financial sink is making the investment in renewables look cheap by comparison.
Irrespective of where we go form this point onward, we still have to solve the storage issue and will the people who created this mess be around to ensure their children don’t have to do the dirty work?