Nuclear storage plan stirs debate

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The Tennessee Valley Authority announced plans to store spent uranium fuel rods in above-ground concrete containers at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant beginning in 2005. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, criticized the plan as a consequence of nuclear power reliance, expressing concern about radioactive waste accumulation along the Tennessee River. TVA maintains that dry storage is a proven, safe, and cost-effective technology already in use at 14 U.S. nuclear plants.

It's just one of the consequences of choosing nuclear power as an option, that you will have nuclear waste piling up on the banks of the Tennessee River
Stephen A. Smith

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Nuclear storage plan stirs debate
■ TVA plans to begin storing radioactive spent uranium fuel rods in above-ground concrete containers.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Ala. — Tennessee Valley Authority officials said they plan to begin storing radioactive spent uranium fuel rods at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in large, above-ground concrete containers in 2005.

TVA officials said the storage process will be safe. But Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a watchdog group in Knoxville, said the plan is disturbing.

"It's just one of the consequences of choosing nuclear power as an option, that you will have nuclear waste piling up on the banks of the Tennessee River," Smith said.

Used uranium fuel rods from the plant's two operating reactors are currently stored in specially designed racks at the bottom of steel-lined, 40-foot-deep concrete pools inside the plant.

Room in the pools, which were originally meant for temporary storage, is expected to begin running out in several years.

TVA and other utilities around the country are looking for ways to store nuclear waste while waiting for the U.S. Department of Energy to build a permanent national nuclear waste storage facility.

The current proposed site for the facility, which has been met with opposition, is deep inside Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

"Until such time DOE accepts the spent fuel, evaluations of available storage expansion technologies have demonstrated that the safest and most cost-effective option for Browns Ferry is dry storage — the use of above ground, concrete containers with steel inner canisters," TVA said in a statement.

"Dry storage of spent fuel is a proven technology that already is used at 14 U.S. nuclear power plants."

Phillip Harris, TVA spokesman at Browns Ferry, said the casks will sit outside, which is what some other nuclear plants are already doing while waiting for a national storage site.

The issue of storing the spent rods was raised at a recent public hearing on an environmental report that TVA is preparing for the plant.