Economic Meltdown Delays Dismantling of Many Nuclear Reactors

Economic Meltdown Delays Dismantling of Many Nuclear Reactors
Thursday, June 18, 2009

The fallout from the global financial crisis might create security threats by delaying decommissioning of many U.S. nuclear reactors, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 12, 2008).

Firms that own nearly half the country's nuclear power plants took such a hit on the stock market and other investments that they have stopped saving the funds necessary to disassemble aging reactors on time. Billions of dollars in losses, combined with a similarly dramatic spike in dismantlement costs, have left them without cash to spare for the work.

It costs roughly $450 million to take apart a nuclear reactor, while plant operators today on average have $300 million set aside for that work.

Owners of 19 sites have acquired permission to wait up to 60 years before dismantling mothballed facilities, while scores of others have received or are seeking 20-year license extensions to help them meet eventual shutdown costs.

This situation could pose not only environmental risks but security dangers as well, as decommissioned plants would still store spent fuel rods that could be stolen by terrorists and mined for weapon-grade plutonium.

"Our concern is that they'll just walk away," said Greenpeace nuclear policy analyst Jim Riccio said. "It's like a sitting time bomb. The notion that you can just walk away from these sites and everything will be hunky-dory is just not true" (Bass/Gram, Associated Press/Google News, June 17).
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20090617_4353.php