nuclear waste
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
A chilling and somber tale about the costs of nuclear waste is told from an unexpected perspective.
A bird’s-eye view on Maine Yankee, where 60 casks of spent nuclear fuel and four casks of irradiated steel, a type of low-level radioactive waste, stand in a square formation. (Courtesy of Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company)
Northwestern University
Thirty-seven years ago, Congress decided the federal government should be responsible for disposing of the waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants. But it's still in limbo.
In 1987, Congress designated Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert as the permanent repository for all U.S. nuclear waste, and spent $15 billion on the site throughout the years. But facing strong local opposition, the site was never put into use and the project was abandoned. (White House photo)
Northwestern University
A bipartisan group of senators revives the longstanding issue of where to store and dispose of nuclear waste with a new bill proposing centralized interim storage, reports Medill's Kimberly Jin.
EM2 is a revolutionary new compact fast reactor that actually runs on the spent-fuel waste of conventional nuclear reactors -- a producing a virtually unlimited electricity supply with no greenhouse gases.