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Pilgrim's Waste
Radioactive waste from a nuclear reactor is classified “high” or “low” depending on where it comes from not upon its toxicity – this is misleading and needs reassessment. High-level radioactive waste includes only irradiated fuel. Low level radioactive waste is everything else that may be intensely radioactive, can deliver a lethal dose, and yet is regulated as "low-level" waste.
“High level” Radioactive Waste - Spent Fuel Rods
Concern about nuclear reactor accidents or attacks has focused on a core meltdown. Nuclear reactors have a weaker link – the spent fuel pool(s). Spent fuel pools contain some of the largest inventories of radioactivity on earth, can catch fire and are vulnerable. At present there is no safe storage solution - no permanent repository in sight; yet nuclear reactors continue to generate tons each year stored on site in areas never designed for that purpose.
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Spent fuel Rods |
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Pilgrim’s Spent Fuel Pool |
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Risk: Spent Fuel Security/ Accident |
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New:
“Thoughts on Spent Fuel Storage” by NRC Commissioner Gregory B.
Jaczko |
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New: Coalition demands solution for
spent fuel pool vulnerability - reactors designed like Pilgrim NPS
especially vulnerable - NRC 2.206 Petition and diagram |
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Safer Storage Solutions |
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Yucca Mountain – Won’t Solve Waste Problem Soon |
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Finances – Who will pay for Safer Dry Storage? |
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Yucca Mountain – Won’t
Solve Waste Problem Soon |
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Transportation:
Shipping Pilgrim’s Spent Fuel Rods to Yucca
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More
about high level waste
“Low Level” Radioactive Waste
So called “low level” radioactive waste at Pilgrim includes, for example the control rods, resins, sludge, filters, and will include the entire nuclear power reactor if and when dismantled. The waste contains highly toxic and long-lived radioactive materials.
In the early years of Pilgrim’s license, the NRC allowed some of the so-called low level radioactive waste to be buried on site. This should not be forgotten when the site is decommissioned. Pilgrim’s low level waste currently is shipped to South Carolina. There is no guarantee that North Carolina will continue to accept the waste. Attempts to build new low-level radioactive sites in the nation have failed.
More
about "low level" waste
The hazardous life of a
radionuclide is 10 - 20 times its half-life. |
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PilgrimWatch.org
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