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Nuclear Waste Trains Will Stop, But Largest Risks Remain...
Since October 1998,
citizen groups and local government officials have pressured Progress Energy to
stop shipping highly radioactive fuel rods by rail to Shearon Harris from its
Robinson and Brunswick plants, and to use safer methods for storing the
high-level waste than currently used at each plant. In May 2003, Progress
(formerly CP&L) stated it would stop shipping waste by 2005, and instead use dry
storage at the other plants. Some common questions:
Q: Is Progress Energy
really going to stop the nuclear waste shipments to Harris?
A: NC WARN believes so. Company officials called us on the day of
the announcement and told us it is a certainty. It is not surprising Progress
said publicly it is “exploring” this move; it’s a big shift, and the company’s
ambiguous announcement helped reduce attention.
Q: Does NC WARN support
this shift?
A: We want the trains stopped now,
rather than in 2005, to prevent additional risks to communities near each plant
and those in between. Progress’s announcement is a strong step in the right
direction, but we are also pressing Progress to use safer storage for the large
amount of nuclear waste already at each of its plants.
Q: This is great news!
Doesn’t this mean the nuclear waste expansion at Shearon Harris will stop?
A: No. Stopping the shipments will
slow the growth of the Harris’s vast pools – the nation’s largest – but Harris’s
own reactor will continue producing waste fuel that must be stored
indefinitely. Harris’s densely packed pools are interconnected and all in one
building, making it one of the nation’s largest potential nuclear targets.
Q: So the problem is
not solved?
A: No. The greatest danger at each
plant are the pools, where a loss of water would lead to an uncontrollable fire
and a radiation release causing health and economic disaster over thousands of
square miles.
Q:
What is the alternative to densely packed pools?
A: Waste assemblies
up to five years old must be stored in pools, but should be placed in
open-framed racking and spaced farther apart. This way, a loss of cooling water
would not necessarily result in a fire.
Q: How should the
older waste fuel be stored?
A:
All waste that has cooled for 5 years should be removed from water and stored in
thick steel casks that are themselves placed in dispersed, hardened structures.
Most of the waste in each pool at Progress’s plants is over 5 years old, and
should be stored this way.
Q: Did
Rep. David Price or Attorney General Roy Cooper help stop the trains?
A:
Possibly. Both have received much public input and have expressed concerns.
We’re counting on both to ensure the safer storage options are adopted at all
plants.
Q: Why did Progress
make the decision to stop shipping waste fuel rods?
A: The corporation alluded to licensing factors involving the plants
and transports, but it had fought hard for the right to ship waste to Harris for
many years. There has been much exposure of Progress’s unsafe practices, and it
knows public pressure will keep growing – unless risks are fully minimized –
because the waste will remain at each plant for decades. Orange County’s strong
legal/technical challenge helped advance scientific understanding about waste
pools, leading to a new Princeton study that raises the pressure on the industry
to eliminate high-density cooling pools in favor of safer storage.
Q:
Can Progress really be persuaded to
take the additional, safer storage measures?
A: If citizens and public officials
keep working for it. The alternative is living near large, risky waste pools.
Waste Awareness and
Reduction Network
PO Box 61051
Durham, NC 27715-1051
Phone: (919) 416-5077 www@NC WARN.org
May, 2003
View the news release about Progress Energy's decision to
halt the trains...
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