Disposing of Dangerous Waste Materials

¶ … alarm concerning the disposal of nuclear waste in the United States. The report determined that the United States government should consolidate the interim storage of nuclear waste and use dry casks to do so. The report touted the fact that dry casks were "stronger, safer, more secure, more manageable and ultimately more affordable" (Rosner, Lordan, 2014, p. 48) than what is currently being used to dispose of nuclear waste.

Rosner and Lordan (2014) determined that dry casks were safer than what is currently being used because the casks are built as 100-ton structures designed to withstand earthquakes, floods, fires, and the impact of airplanes. An additional caveat to using dry casks according to Rosner et al. is that they do not require any energy once stored, and they are relatively inexpensive to build.

One of the reasons why the Rosner and Lordan report is so important is because of the current scenario for disposing of nuclear waste is a problem that is growing bigger every year, not just for the United States but for the global community as well. Mascarelli (2013) wrote that major decisions need to be made on an urgent basis due to the fact that there are currently 65,00 tons of spent nuclear fuel and other waste and that it is "a dirty legacy that is growing by 2000 tons each year" (p. 42).

Those 65,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel are currently stored in massive steel and concrete storage containers throughout the U.S. At one point in time the United States had decided to build a huge underground storage facility in the mountains of Nevada, but abandoned that project in the late 1990's.

The problem with underground storage is that most of the time there is ground water that can bring the radioactive waste back to the surface and allow it to seep into drinking water, which is not a good thing for those drinking the water. The storage chamber must be drilled deep enough into the mountains that the rock is less permeable, and building a storage facility that deep is not an easy challenge.

The answer for most countries is to store the waste above ground while still attempting to find a permanent solution, and that is what the United States and many other countries do on a regular basis. Finding the most acceptable, and safest method for disposing of nuclear waste is a global issue and there are entities that are attempting to find global answers. During the late 1990's a group was formed that researched the idea of a 'global storage facility'.

According to Mascarelli (2013) the group discovered a number of different areas around the world that would be suitable, and finally honed in on Australia as the best site. The problem was that as soon as the Australian government caught wind of the fact that their country was number one on the list, the government passed a law that prohibited any foreign waste disposal in Australia. After all, what country would really find acceptable the idea of being the world's waste facility? Still, the problem persists and is.