German nuclear waste may be headed to South Carolina site

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Are you saying that there is a wide discrepancy between the number of people in the US who actually care, and those who care, but somehow don't really care? Or did I read that wrong?
No offense, but that just seems weird to me.
I'd really like to know how much attention this topic has in your media right now and what the general opinion is.

Also thanks for your answer

a reply to: ColCurious

It was in the local news paper this past Thrusday:

DOE seeks input on German fuel possibly coming to SRS

Does the public get a say about it? Judge for yourself:

n a federal register notice, the Department of Energy invited anyone to submit comments on the issue, based on a proposal from DOE to accept, process and dispose of used nuclear fuel from Germany containing approximately 900 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium, or HEU.
The comment period began on Wednesday and will end on July 21.
In addition, officials will host a public meeting on Tuesday, June 24, at the North Augusta Community Center located at 495 Brookside Drive. The meeting will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and will offer the opportunity for individuals to comment further.
To submit written comments, the public can send letters to Andrew Grainger, NEPA Compliance Officer, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box B, Aiken, South Carolina 29802. Residents can also email comments to Grainger at [email protected].
“DOE will give equal weight to written comments and oral comments received at the public scoping meeting,” officials wrote in the register notice.


Read more: DOE seeks input on German fuel possibly coming to SRS | Aiken Standard
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a reply to: eriktheawful

Thanks for the link.

You said the SRS site is near where you live?
I'd really appreciate it if you could post here on ATS (or PM me) about future developments and the outcome of that "public comment period".

a reply to: ColCurious

Sure. Keep in mind it won't be until after July 21 though.

I can tell you right now: most folks here will not mind the deal at all, as it means continued jobs at "The Bomb Factory" (nick name for SRS that began when the US government built it in the 50's).

Truth be told, SRS is a rather safe place for waste like that to be at. We do have seismic activity, but normally not on the scale or frequency as other places.
We're not near the ocean, so no worries about Tsunamis or storm surge from hurricanes.

The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory is located at the site:

The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory is a research unit of the University of Georgia located on the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy facility near Aiken, SC. The laboratory pursues basic and applied research at multiple levels of ecological organization, from atoms to ecosystems. SREL also provides opportunities for graduate and undergraduate research training, and service to the community through environmental outreach. Throughout its 50+ year history SREL has strived to acquire and communicate knowledge that contributes to sound ecological stewardship.

Been there many times with my scouts for them to learn about ecology and conservation, part of their outreach program of (Be A Ecologist For A Day). I know....sort of a conflict, a nuclear facility and a ecology lab....but they seriously watch and record the ecology all around the SRS site.

Here's some images of Sean Poppy that works there, showing our kids different animal life that resides at SRS:







Closure of the SRS would have a massive economical impact on our city here (a very bad one), and it would also shut down SREL site, no more ecology lab for the kids to visit and learn from (adults too. Quite a bit of history there).

a reply to: ColCurious

I'm saying there is a world of difference between caring to say it for surveys, talk about it in offices during lunch and toss spare change into 'good cause' jars next to the check out register vs. actually doing and dedicating serious time to activity.

A majority care intellectually, but a small minority do anything meaningful. Many for good reasons, like living life and raising families which don't give the time, and I wouldn't suggest it's a blame thing. Just a statement as I'd term it. Action is what changes things and it's what seems real slow at the moment.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Corruptedstructure

Except that it wouldn't get them anything extra. If the fuel rods were anywhere near ground zero, they'd be almost vaporized in the initial explosion.

Are you kidding me? Just because a radioactive element is vaporized does not mean that it is no longer radioactive. You make it sound like it just disappears. It doesn't it just turns into vapor or other radioactive elements which can than travel even further than solid particle. I've never heard of this place being under danger of nuclear attack but if you Nuke nuclear waste it does not just disappear. I think the Nuclear industry should figure out where they are going put all of their waste and have the money to decommission these plants before they are given tax payers money to insure them. The amount of subsides direct and indirect the nuclear industry gets is absolutely ridiculous.

a reply to: BGTM90

I didn't say it disappeared completely. I said it didn't add anything extra to the fallout that you already have from the bomb going off. If you're standing in 60 mph winds and you blow really hard, it's not going to increase the wind speed any.

The explosion is going to vaporize the rods themselves, as well as at least some of radioactive particles from them, but what's left is not going to suddenly turn the nuclear bomb detonating into a super bomb.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: BGTM90

I didn't say it disappeared completely. I said it didn't add anything extra to the fallout that you already have from the bomb going off. If you're standing in 60 mph winds and you blow really hard, it's not going to increase the wind speed any.

The explosion is going to vaporize the rods themselves, as well as at least some of radioactive particles from them, but what's left is not going to suddenly turn the nuclear bomb detonating into a super bomb.

It's not going to add anything more other than massive amounts of nuclear contamination. One cores worth of spent nuclear fuel contains the same amount of radioactive daughters as multiple nuclear bombs so if some one nuked a spent fuel storage facility it will defiantly be worse than a nuke going off by its self. but this is off subject. The DOE needs to stop subsidizing the nuke industry its been 70 years and we the tax payer are still paying for it. And yet they still don't know where to store their waste which is one of the most dangerous substance on earth and none of them have put aside enough money to decommission any of the plants. The owners of Indian Point in Vermont are shutting the plant down next year for good but don't plan on decommissioning the plant for 60 year because it's going to cost $1,000,000,000 dollars to do it and they only put aside 300,000,000 which they say they are going to put into the stock market and hope they have enough in 60 year. We all know the stock market is reliable. When you build a wind generator you have to have every single penny needed to decommission that wind turbine before you can even begin to start building it. You don't need a single penny for a nuclear power plant. And when they shut down they don't want to pay for emergency planing any more because they say there can not be a major accident while the plant's not operational yet they still want the tax payers to pay their insurance incase there is a major accident. All the while they could just claim bankruptcy and leave the tax payers with the whole bill. I mean they made their money already any way what do they care. And this is the same situation with almost all nuclear plants around the country. Every one thinks nuclear is cheap but it wouldn't be cheap at all if the industry did't get the enormous subsidies payed for by the american people not to mention the cost of a nuclear accident. Fukushima is going to cost 250 billion just for decommissioning the pant and the clean up of all the contaminated land not to mention health care cost. We should figure out our own issues with our nuclear industry and where to put our waste before we take other peoples. Look at the WIPP site in NM that stores nuclear waste just had an accident which may have contaminated the whole site. It's very possible radiation levels are so high in the cavern and contamination is so wide spread they might have to just close the site down and seal it off. Its more billions down the drain we could be spending on renewables yet is being thrown at the nuclear industry.

a reply to: BGTM90

I must say this is really confusing. Thanks to Corruptedstructure for bringing this up. Really interesting.
Why would the taxpayer have to pay for the decommission of a private companie's waste? That is really #ed up.
The operators of the nuclear power plant are responsible for the disposing of spent fuel and radioactive waste!!
Guess who will be paying the communities in Aiken, SC? Not me.
Are the people there even receiving money, or at least benefitting from it then?

originally posted by: ColCurious
a reply to: BGTM90

I must say this is really confusing. Thanks to Corruptedstructure for bringing this up. Really interesting.
Why would the taxpayer have to pay for the decommission of a private companie's waste? That is really #ed up.
The operators of the nuclear power plant are responsible for the disposing of spent fuel and radioactive waste!!
Guess who will be paying the communities in Aiken, SC? Not me.
Are the people there even receiving money, or at least benefitting from it then?

Well the operators and the Nuclear power plant it self are different entities. The nuclear power plant is a, get this, Limited Liability company so if they don't have enough money to decommission the plant(which none of them do) they can just declare bankruptcy and at that point its on the state to clean it up. Also the DOE is most likely going to be paying for this and guess where Gov. agencies get their money? The american tax payers. The DOE is also trying to fund new nuclear reactors in Japan so now we are paying for other peoples Nuclear reactors.

a reply to: ColCurious

I'm just happy that it helped alert some locals that may have missed it.
Maybe it can get blocked. Although, I bet it doesn't..

A little bit of knowledge about the place might help some of those understand, or at least know what the place is about.

Allow me to help:

First, here is the home page of the Savannah River Site

Now for a bit more detailed information about SRS:

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a nuclear reservation in the United States in the state of South Carolina, located on land in Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell Counties adjacent to the Savannah River, 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Augusta, Georgia. The site was built during the 1950s to refine nuclear materials for deployment in nuclear weapons. It covers 310 square miles (800 km2) and employs more than 10,000 people.

It is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The management and operating contract is held by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC (SRNS), and the Liquid Waste Operations contract is held by Savannah River Remediation, which is a team of companies led by URS Corp.

A major focus is cleanup activities related to work done in the past for American nuclear buildup. Currently none of the reactors on-site are operating (see list of nuclear reactors), although two of the reactor buildings are being used to consolidate and store nuclear materials. SRS is also home to the Savannah River National Laboratory and the USA's only operating radiochemical separations facility. Its Tritium facilities are also the United States' only source of tritium, an essential component in nuclear weapons. The USA's only mixed oxide fuel (MOX) manufacturing plant is being constructed at SRS overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration. When operational, the MOX facility will convert legacy weapons-grade plutonium into fuel suitable for commercial power reactors.[1]

Straight from the Wikipedia

I highly recommend everyone to use the above link and read through the history time line of the place, so you can see what it has been used for since it was first built in the 1950's.

None of the reactors are online by the way, the last one was shut down in 1992 (the K reactor).

However, as you can see the site belongs to the DOE, and has had many companies in the past there.

Some of you may find it interesting reading.

a reply to: eriktheawful
Where I live, when I tell people that we are sourced by a couple of Nuclear Reactors being cooled by the Mississippi... I'm full of dung. Prairie River and Monticello are there. They are on the great feed of the mighty miss. Also the Great Lakes are about 200 miles away, Superior, that is.

Wrabbit brought a point that people won't take action against it. It paints a target on your back when you do. Money makes decisions in spite of popular opinions. If people could afford to take off a day or a week or two to register their disgust in an emphatic way, with others, a protest might work. It just doesn't work that way anymore. Too many sycophants.

Col. Curious, In this country, USA, we have a right to voice an opinion. Unfortunately, if you voice the wrong opinion without aligning yourself with others who agree with you, it will ruin your career. It's a fine line from being outspoken to being outcast. It pays better to be duplicitous. It pays better than that to remember where you came from.

As a citizen, there is only so much you can do. I've seen born leaders snuffed out and cast aside because they were a threat. Politics.

Anyways... That is my take on why people can't get things done. It takes a person, Leader, who'll take on the octopus with zero regard to his/her own future. After he/she gets chewed and spit, there are dozens if not thousands ready to take that place. Like Star Trek. Let's advance our civilization.