AIPG-TX Section Webinar: GeoPolitics of Energy: Part 2: What Happened to Our Nuclear Waste Disposal Program?
OUR NOVEMBER SPEAKER: Dr. James Conca is a Trustee of the Herbert M. Parker Foundation at WSU in the Tri-Cities. He has worked on nuclear and energy issues for 40 years at NASA, Washington State University, New Mexico State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Conca has been an advisor to DOE, EPA, state and federal regulatory agencies, and to President Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future from 2010 to 2012. He worked on the Yucca Mt and WIPP nuclear waste projects for 25 years, was a Science Contributor to Forbes on energy issues for 10 years, and is an advisor to the new WA State Legislature’s bipartisan Nuclear Energy Caucus. Dr. Conca obtained a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1985, a Masters in Planetary Science in 1981, and a Bachelors in Geology and Biochemistry from Brown University in 1979.
Dr. Conca also served as Advisor to the AAPG Energy Minerals Division’s Uranium and REE Committee for many years.
Abstract
Dr. Conca discussed the history and present state of America’s nuclear waste disposal program and the underlying issues, including cost and policy, that are slowing the program to a crawl and preventing us from actually disposing of our nuclear waste. There are three successful paths open to us, but none of them are being pursued at present.
Unknown to most, America has an operating deep geologic nuclear waste repository in southeast New Mexico, called the WIPP, that is in the best geologic formation in the world, massive salt of the Permian age Salado Formation, the very formation chosen by the National Academy of Sciences in 1957 for this purpose. This repository was designed and built for all nuclear waste of any type, but was only permitted for transuranic (TRU) nuclear weapons waste, much of it from Hanford. TRU waste is similar to most of the high-level tank waste except for two constituents, cesium-137 and strontium-90, which are now largely gone from the Hanford Tanks – meaning there is no HLW left in the Hanford Tanks – setting up the classic confrontation between science and politics.
Regrettably, things got very strange in the 1970s.
Unfortunately, the end point of our present policy is that most everything will stay right where it is for a hundred years. The implications for commercial power reactors, and defense waste at sites like Hanford and Savannah River, are profound.
For full presentation of Part 2, click (here).
Selected posts:
Why Are We So Afraid of Nuclear?
Where Has All The Nuke Waste Gone?
Where Would YOU Put Our Nuclear Waste?
The Ten Biggest Power Plants In America — Not What You Think
How Deadly Is Your Kilowatt? We Rank The Killer Energy Sources
Uranium Seawater Extraction Makes Nuclear Power Completely Renewable
America’s Navy The Unsung Heroes Of Nuclear Energy
Selected YouTube Videos:
Used Nuclear Fuel w/ Dr. James Conca – Part One
To see Part 1: GeoPolitics of Energy: Part 1: Achieving a Just and Sustainable Energy Mix by 2040, click (here).
AIPG-TX SCHOLARSHIP FUND: All moneys generated by this series go to the AIPG-TX Scholarship Fund, Applications due by February 14, 2025.