NY Times Article About Spent Fuel Pools and Dry Casks for Long Term Storage

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/business/energy-environment/06cask.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

Above is a link to the article.

This is a great article for understanding how dangerous a situation we are in with all this spent nuclear fuel sitting around.  I don't want to say too much because you should just read the article.

Of note is that if you are exposed to a spent fuel rod, it's radiation levels are so high it will kill you in minutes.  The Illinois plant detailed in the NY Times was in the process of dry casking 57,000 pounds of this stuff.

I know that Fort Calhoun dry casked much of their spent fuel within the last two years.  I believe they built at least 2 concrete bunkers for this purpose.

Another interesting part of the article is how dangerous it is just to remove rods from the pool and put them in the casks.  It doses the workers with 1/4 of the yearly recommended dose of radiation.  And costs about 1.5 million dollars to per cask.


The last thing I'll highlight from this article is the incredibly stupid qoute from Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the NRC, who came to Fort Calhoun last week to look around and say everything is fine.  Jaczko, said the difference between spent fuel pools and dry casks is "like buying one Powerball ticket or 10 Powerball tickets."  It's his way of telling us how unlikely a nuclear accident is at one of these plants.  Read the article and see if you agree with him, and if someone who sees things like that should be listened to at all.