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Utahns are shockingly ignorant
of the toxic waste poised to invade
By Gentri Lawrence
October 19, 2005 | We want toxic,
lethal waste in Utah forever. That's right, we are just
asking for 40,000 tons of high level nuclear waste to
be dumped in our west desert.
What, you haven't heard anything about this? A normal
response, no one pays any attention and hey, there are
more important things to pay attention to like where
the next Wal-Mart will go. Who cares about the storage
of the entire nation's high level waste in our backyard,
when obviously the Wal-Mart is much more important.
The facility will be located in Skull Valley, 50 miles
from Salt Lake City and half of Utah's population. The
impoverished Skull Valley Goshute tribe made an agreement
10 years ago with Private Fuel Storage to trade land
for an undisclosed sum of money, which based on the
$3.1 billion budget could be a large sum. The Skull
Valley Goshutes, numbering 150 people, retain their
sovereignty, which allows them to make agreements for
land use even though it will impact 2 million Utah citizens
with no say on the project.
Most high level waste is created in nuclear power
plants. Uranium pellets are made into rods and heated
in reactors to produce energy. Rods are removed with
97 percent of energy capacity still in the rod and stored
in large pools to cool them while they emit heat through
decomposition. The waste is lethal for 10,000 years,
longer than known history. Utah does not have any nuclear
power plants or currently hold any high level waste.
Why should we be expected to store something that we
don't even produce? And yet we are set to become the
dump for the nation's waste, 40,000 tons of it and possibly
more, from over 103 power plants.
Utah is already home to more than five military installations,
and also Envirocare which disposes of low level waste,
the Deseret Chemical Depot storing and destroying chemical
and biological weapons. Soon a shipment of toxic dirt
will arrive from Japan that the federal government asked
to pay for and then will dump here in Utah. In fact,
86 percent of our land is federally owned. It is apparent
that Utah is not doing its part to support the country,
we haven't been forced to take on too much and so it
makes sense to add more, why not?
The facility is supposed to temporarily store waste
for 40 years and then transfer it to a permanent facility.
The only problem is that there is no permanent facility
and based on past history it's possible that there won't
be one in 40 years either. The government took responsibility
to create a permanent storage system in 1982; 23 years
later we are still without a facility or a solution.
Yucca Mountain was designated the permanent site and
millions of dollars later the facility is not even close
to accepting waste and might never open. No other storage
options have been explored for the past 18 years. The
waste temporarily stored in Utah could easily become
permanent storage.
Waste will be transported thousands of miles, mostly
from the east coast, by rail and trucks to the facility.
Housed in canisters 10 feet tall, the waste will then
be placed on cement pads. The casks are not bolted down
and are sitting in the open air with no substantial
security barrier if a canister leaked. All it would
take is one accident and half of Utah's population is
contaminated, not to mention all the communities it
passes on route to the facility. Senator Harry Reid
(D-Nevada) said, "Thousands of tons of deadly nuclear
material will pass homes, schools, businesses and churches
in communities across the country, and there is simply
no way to safely do this."
In Europe they have been recycling the waste for decades.
The amount of waste is lower and easier to store. Why
aren't we doing this instead of just trying to store
the waste? The Utah Delegation is supportive of recycling
but has failed so far to get greater support. Hill Air
Force Base (HAFB) annually flies hundreds of flights
over the proposed site. Skull Valley is the gateway
to a whole corridor which HAFB uses to fly F-16s. Studies
found that if an F-16 crashed it would have a "catastrophic"
effect on the canisters. With waste in direct path it
is likely that the flight plans will have to be changed
causing flight to become more expensive, making HAFB
vulnerable to closure. HAFB is a leading employer and
an essential element to Utah's economy.
On Sept. 8, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission vetoed
Utah's latest effort to stop the waste from entering.
After a long fight, the debated facility can be licensed
and ready to open in 2008. Due to the sovereign status
of the Goshutes the facility has no legal responsibility
to compensate the state in any way unless there is a
separate agreement, which has not happened. So the state
will pay for extra staff and training in case an emergency
occurs, all on the taxpayers' dime.
Last April, President Bush said, "A secure energy
future for America must include more nuclear power."
The only problem is that we are having difficulty deciding
what to do with the waste that we currently have. It
makes good sense to add more plants and produce more
waste? Right. It sounds like the problems are only going
to get worse until the government takes responsibility
and builds and approves a permanent storage facility.
Dangerous waste is coming to our home and it is surprising
how little we have done to fight it, it is even more
shocking how many people don't know about it. Haven't
we done our part for the good of the nation? Large tracts
of land are filled with undesirable industries that
were forced upon the state. We need to stand up and
fight this facility. This is the future of our state
and our families, and we need to take action or else
Utah will become known as America's toxic waste dump.
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