[Scukonah]

And what is the problem exactly with radioactive waste? Nuclear power plants operate for decades, and all the waste is safely stored. Safely stored is a relative term. The waste is not presently an environmental hazard, but all of the present storage facilities are on-site, and were never meant to be permenant.

When hot fuel-rods are removed, they are cooled in tanks of boric acid, which helps to absorb radiation. The cooling process takes less than 6 months, but most spent fuel rods have never left the tanks. Nuclear plants have had to expand the ccoling tanks to accommodate more rods, which leads to another problem. If the pool becomes too crowded, the material can go critical. So the pools are constantly monitored, and control-rod material is added to the pools to inhibit reaction.

Usually after years, the waste is dry stored in containers or entombed in bunkers, which are also on-site.

60 Minutes recently rebroadcast a report on the permanent storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. If and when this facility begins to accept nuclear waste material, I'll endorse nuclear plants. However, there is resistance in Nevada.

Even the movement (by rail and Interstate) of the waste will be very hazardous. If they started today, it would take 24 years to move the existing stockpile.

Transmutation