Editor - Jan Weaver

208 Tucker Hall, MU 65211

It's Just Political...

Like many environmentalists I find myself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to nuclear power. If coal-fired plants are a major contributor to greenhouse gases (about 2 billion metric tons/year in the US) and if greenhouse gases are a major contributor to global warming (>1° F since 1905) then we have to find an alternative that can provide clean, relatively cheap electricity if we are going to continue to enjoy our current lifestyle without bringing a climate catastrophe down on our heads.

Nuclear energy seems an obvious solution. An MIT study (http://web.mit.edu/nuclearpower/) found that tripling nuclear power generation could avoid the release of 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2. Nuclear fuel is cheaper than coal. Next generation reactors could be helium cooled, meaning no radioactive coolant leaks (He might leak but it does not become radioactive) with temperatures high enough to produce hydrogen fuel. Who could resist? No CO2, cheaper than coal, no radioactive leaks and hydrogen fuel for our next generation cars!

As usual, the devil is in the details. Nuclear fuel is cost competitive with coal, but the capital costs of nuclear plant construction are much higher, so the actual cost is 6.7 cents per kWh, compared to 4.2 cents for coal and less than 6 cents for natural gas (MIT again). Only a carbon tax of $100 per ton would get nuclear, coal and gas in the same neighborhood. The plant applications currently before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are not for the next generation helium cooled plants, they are for current generation water cooled plants, so there is still the potential for radioactive coolant leaks, and they won't run hot enough to split hydrogen off from water. However, the real kicker is that after 20 years and hundreds of millions of dollars, there is still no long term storage facility for the nearly 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste we have accumulated so far, or for the 2000 or so metric tons we add to it each year.

Ten years after removal from a core, the surface dose rate of spent fuel is greater than 10,000 rem/hour (A rem measures biological risk). A fatal whole body dose is 500 rem This stuff needs to be stored at a facility that would maintain its integrity for thousands of years until the radiation decays to a safer level. In 1987, the Department of Energy was assigned the responsibility of locating, building and operating a repository for the waste. By 2008, only Yucca Mountain Nevada had been evaluated, and when its Governor issued a notice of non-approval of Yucca Mountain's selection, Congress simply voted to override the objection. (Nevada has still been able to slow things down by refusing to issue the permits needed for construction and by having a senator who is senate majority leader)

No country, according to the MIT study, has successfully solved this problem. And given the rate of production needed to impact climate change, you would need the equivalent of Yucca Mountain every three to four years to handle the world's nuclear waste. And just in case you are wondering what they are doing with the waste in the meantime, it is stored at the plants where it is generated, either in pools or in dry storage (the NRC has determined that it can be stored safely this way for 100 years). Why the resistance to accepting nuclear waste? Many in the newly re-energized field of nuclear power argue it is simply due to politics....

"Because there isn't a final storage facility [in Germany], one could come to the conclusion that the problem hasn't been solved," Dr. Thomas Fanghaenel, director of the Institute for Transuranium Elements in Karlsruhe, told DER SPIEGEL ONLINE. "That would be the wrong conclusion.... I think the political problems are the most difficult -- the 'not in my backyard' phenomenon and other socio-political problems."

But no government maintains a commitment consistently over the long term unless the commitment continuously helps maintain politicians and parties in power. Individual politicians may make promises costly to themselves in pursuit of a higher responsibility, but once they leave office, there is no guarantee their promises will be kept by the person who succeeds them, who may have different promises to keep. For example, the nuclear waste currently stored on site at power plants was supposed to be transported to an interim storage site beginning in 1998, but because none had been located or constructed, the DOE had to default on its commitment to accept nuclear waste from power plants. And obviously, our representatives failed to use their authority to make it happen ---- So yeah, it's political.

The average person who lives in a place proposed for a permanent nuclear waste storage site may not understand how technology has made it much safer to store nuclear waste than it was in the past, but they appear to be miles ahead of the average nuclear engineer* in understanding human nature.

Once a permanent facility is built, the only representatives who will care year in and year out, will be those in whose state and district it sits. For the rest of Congress, other concerns, terrorism, wars, health care, energy prices, recessions, will push this issue to the bottom of the list of things to be dealt with. Slowly but surely, the budget for maintaining such a facility will fall behind inflation. Salaries won't keep up with those in the private sector, monitoring equipment will not be replaced or upgraded, and small cracks will be neglected and grow into larger ones until some awful event grabs national attention just long enough for a couple of rounds of finger pointing.

Nuclear seems easy to industry because it already has practice building the plants and producing power. But that is only because industry handed the hard part of the problem off to the federal government, which has so far, as governments will, avoided coming to grips with it. It is not as if we do not have other options to address climate change - state of the art wind plants can generate power at 5 cents per kWh, solar photovoltaics cost 30 cents per kWh, solar thermal costs 8 to 15 cents per kWh, and conservation costs 2 to 5 cents per kWh. The investments being made in nuclear energy and nucler waste disposal could be used to increase photovoltaic efficiency, to develop large scale storage to ensure base power capacity, or to build secure grid interconnectivity. These are promises that will be much easier to keep.

* My sincere apologies to any nuclear engineer who does understand this aspect of human nature!

Bio Regional: How many years of nuclear waste storage capacity remain at the Callaway Nuclear Plant in Fulton? Okay, not that biological, but definitely regional.

Special Events/Programs/Classes/Talks

NUCLEAR POWER ALTERNATIVES: Wednesday February 27, 6:30, Commission Chambers, Boone Co. Govt Bldg.

BONNE FEMME CREEK MEETING: Thursday February 28, 6-9 pm, Ashland Senior Center - to discuss landowner problem with erosion, non-native plants, etc. please respond to Greenbelt.land.trust@gmail.com 573-442-4789

COLUMBIA AQUATIC RESTORATION PROJECT- CARP: Classes March 3, 10, 17 at the Parks Management Center at 1507 Business Loop 70 West, with projects on Saturdays.

PARKAPALOOZA: Sunday March 9, 3-7 pm, Unitarian Church 2615 Shepard Boulevard. A benefit for Friends of Rock Bridge Mem St Park Outdoor Education Programs: kids' activities, contest to see who knows the most about the park, silent auction. web.missouri.edu/~umcsnresiwww/parkapalooza2008.html

NATIVE PLANT DRAWINGS: Monday March 10, 7 pm, Unitarian Church 2615 Shepard Blvd. Program on botanical drawings by Dorie Draper

TREE SPECIES ON THE MISSOURI RIVER FLOOD PLAIN: Tuesday March 11, 7 pm. Bryant Cabin Jim Harlan. http://www.friendsofbigmuddy.org/program.htm

INDIAN HILLS PARK CLEANUP: Saturday March 15, call Greg at 573-443-8263 for details

INVASIVE PLANT REMOVAL: Saturday March 15, Greenbelt Land Trust Nature Preserve (park at Capen park and walk west on the Hinkson trail); bring water, gloves, clippers and bow saws; Dee Dokken 442-4224 or Janet Hammen 442-5827

SUSTAINABLE LIVING FAIR PLANNING MEETING: Tuesday March 11, 7:15 pm, Peace Nook on Broadway downtown; FAIR scheduled for September 13, 2008

RANDAL CLARK'S WILDFLOWER WALKS: mid March, Wednesdays 5:30 pm Devil's Icebox parking lot in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, call Randal at 573-875-0514 for details

KATY TRAIL BIKE RIDE: Saturday March 22, Coopers Landing, call Greg at 573-443-8263 for details

COLUMBIA FARMER'S MARKET OPENS: Saturday March 22, at Clinkscales and Ash

DOCUMENTARY-"CLIMATE OF HOPE": Wednesday April 2, 7 pm, Friends Room Library

BOONE COUNTY FARMER'S MARKET OPENS: Saturday April 7, at West Blvd and Worley

CLEAN UP COLUMBIA DAY: April 12. Call 874-7499 for details on registering

NATIVE PLANT SALE: April 12, 9-Noon, Bradford Farm http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford/events/

WILD CAVE TOURS: April 15 - May 16, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. Daylong, adventure-style wild cave tour. Some fees apply. Contact park for brochure and schedule 573-449-7402. http://www.mostateparks.com/rockbridge/cave.htm

COLUMBIA EARTH DAY: Sunday April 20, Peace Park, MU Campus & Downtown Columbia. Booth Registration open. http://www.columbiaearthday.org/

NATIVE PLANT FIELD DAY: June 26, Bradford Farm

Organization Meetings and Contact Information

AUDUBON SOCIETY: 874-3904 / columbia-audubon.missouri.org Meet 3rd Wed 7:30 pm, Unitarian Church, 2615 Shepard Blvd.

BIG CANOE: 573-875-8590 / bryce_crispies@yahoo.com / http://www.bigcanoemo.org/ - Saturday workdays 10-1 at 406 Sanford

BOONE COUNTY SMART GROWTH COALITION: http://smartgrowth.missouri.org/, 1st Weds 7:15 Boone Co Govt Ctr.

CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING: 875-0539 or http://www.midmopeaceworks.org/sustainableliving.php

CHOUTEAU GROTTO: http://chouteau.missouri.org/, Meet 1st Wed, 7 pm, The Casteel Building, 1518 Business Loop 70 East

COLUMBIA CLIMATE CHANGE COALITION: 573-529-9273, Meet 3rd Thu http://www.columbiaclimatechangecoalition.org/

COLUMBIA FOOD CIRCLE: 882-7463 or http://foodcircles.missouri.edu/sources.htm

COLUMBIA PUBLIC WORKS VOL. PROGRAMS: 874-6271 or http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Volunteer/Opportunities/#PW

COMMUNITY GARDEN COALITION: 875-5995 or cgardenc@yahoo.com or http://cgc.missouri.org 3rd Thursdays 7 pm Columbia Public Library

ENV EDUCATION WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES: http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/teacher/workshops/

FRIENDS OF BIG MUDDY: friends@friendsofbigmuddy.org or www.friendsofbigmuddy.org 2nd Tues, 7 pm, Bryant Cabin

FRIENDS OF ROCK BRIDGE M. S. P.: 815-9255 or http://rockbridge.missouri.org/ Outdoors Bldg, 200 Old 63 S.

GET ABOUT COLUMBIA: http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/GetAbout_Columbia/index.php

GREEKS GOING GREEN: new group for fraternities and sororities at MU sauzp5@mizzou.edu

GREEN SANCTUARY: 1st Fridays, 7:00 pm UU Church 2615 Shepard Blvd alternates green movies and discussions g_baka2002@yahoo.com

GREENBELT LAND TRUST OF MID-MISSOURI: 442-4789, greenbelt.land.trust @gmail.com or http://greenbelt.missouri.org

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY RESTORE: 815-9836, drop off/ buy 1906 Monroe St. Columbia Mon to Fri 8:30 to 3:30, Sat 8-1 1pm,

MISSOURI ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: www.meea.org

MO NATIVE PLANT SOC.: http://columbianativeplants.missouri.org/, 2nd Mon, odd months, 7 p.m., UU Church, 2615 Shepard

MISSOURI RIVER COMMUNITIES NETWORK: 573-256-2602 or www.moriver.org or moriver@coin.org

MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE ENERGY: http://www.mosafeenergy.org/Content/ first Tuesdays, 7:15, Peace Nook on Broadway

PEDNET COALITION: email: pednet@pednet.org or http://www.pednet.org

RIVER RELIEF: http://www.riverrelief.org/

ROCK BRIDGE MEMORIAL STATE PARK: 449-7402 or http://rockbridge.missouri.org

SHOW ME CLEAN STREAMS COALITION: (573) 751-4115 ext 3169 or www.mostreamteam.org

SIERRA CLUB: 875-2916, http://missouri.sierraclub.org/osage/index.htm 3rd Tuesdays 7:30 pm Hillel Found., 1107 University Ave

SUSTAIN MIZZOU: http://students.missouri.edu/~sustainmizzou/

WILD ONES: 573 882-9909, ext 3257 or email wildonesmo@yahoo.com, http://wildones.missouri.org Meetings 2nd Saturdays.

Feedback - Got an opinion? If we have space, we will consider publishing it. Submit it by email (envstudy@missouri.edu), snail mail (Environmental Studies, 211 Lowry , MU, Columbia MO 65211), or call Jan Weaver to talk about it (882-7116). MU Environmental Network News is published by MU's Environmental Studies Initiative. All opinions expressed are the responsibility of the editor. Any part of this newsletter may be copied for distribution but please give us credit.

Answer to BioRegional Quiz: There is 16 years of storage capacity remaining at Callaway. Currently, Callaway is considering an application to build an additional reactor at the site, which will probably include additional storage capacity. At the rate things are going, this will probably end up being the permanent storage facility for Callaway's radioactive waste. Something we may want to keep in mind for the public hearings.