Japan, U.S. plan nuclear waste storage in Mongolia

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: Reuters

Japan and the United States plan to jointly build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Mongolia to serve customers of their nuclear plant exporters, pushing ahead despite Japan's prolonged nuclear crisis, the Mainichi daily said on Monday.

A Trade Ministry official said Japan, U.S. and Mongolia officials, at a meeting shortly before Japan's March 11 earthquake, informally discussed possible construction of a nuclear waste storage facility for countries with nuclear power plants but no spent fuel storage capability of their own.

He said there were no concrete plans at this time but the ministry would consider such a project if Mongolia were interested.

The Mainichi said the facility would allow Japanese and U.S. nuclear plant exporters, which include joint ventures and units of General Electric , Hitachi and Toshiba , to better compete with Russian rivals that offer potential nuclear plant customers spent fuel disposal in a package.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/09/energy-nuclear-mongolia-idUSL3E7G80HD20110509

[marions ghost]

1. Ship it to Mongolia

oh yeah, brilliant. :thumbsdown:

[defendandprotect]

2. Right -- and after that maybe Mars??? Nuclear reactors to boil water for steam is madness!!

[hunter]

9. Burning fossil fuels for any reason is madness...

What does it mean when you say "Nuclear reactors to boil water for steam is madness!!"?

I don't get it.

Wars are madness. Cars are madness. Consumerism is madness. The U.S. defense budget is madness. Overpopulation is madness.

By any measure nuclear power is very far down on the list of destructive and unsustainable human behaviors.

[defendandprotect]

13. Agree -- we've known since the late 1950's the model of Global Warming and

that we had to stop burning fossil fuels -- !!

That's when ExxonMobil and the oil industry went to work lying to the public!!


What does it mean when you say "Nuclear reactors to boil water for steam is madness!!"?

I don't get it.

That was Einstein's comment on using nuclear reactors for "energy" -- which is simply

about bring temperature to a point where you create steam! That's all it's about.

I'm sure we could find a less dangerous way to boil water and create steam!!


Presumably, in large part the nuclear reactors were a gimmick to "prove" the safety of

atomic weapons and that they could have a "peaceful use" -- i.e., a way to stop the

"Ban the Bomb!" movements!! Which, btw, was a dangerous time for those who wanted US

to continued on the Superpower road and amass nuclear weapons!!


We're not even sure how we came upon atomic weapons -- some think we actually picked up

two atomic bombs from Germany post WWII -- and that only the third one was ours?

Whatever -- 300 years of males involved in physics and what we have to show for it is

the atomic bomb -- DEATH!!

Brilliant!!

[hunter]

16. Sounds more like Ralph Nader or Amory Lovins than Einstein.

...

[defendandprotect]

19. Needless to say, BOTH Albert Einstein and Ralph Nader are brilliant -- !!!

:nuke:

[WatsonT]

11. If you have a cheaper, more reliable, and practical way

that could replace all that water boiled by all those nuclear reactors, then do tell.

While you're at it: coal, methane, and oil as well.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Why not store it at Chernobyl? It's already a toxic dump for life.

[defendandprotect]

14. Why not stop creating new WASTE? We have to shut down these reactors ....

WASTE is only one of the reasons -- and a huge reason --

One of the "explosions" at Fukushima seems to have exploded thru the roof

with one or more of the radiation storage rods having ended up a distance

from the site!

These things are like 12 feet long -- 1/2 inch wide -- but if you get near

them for a few minutes, it's curtains -- not instantly, but soon.


POLLUTION and ILLNESS for us all is another reason -- we're all "Downwinders" --


but the final reason is that Global Warming is increasing the number of catastrophic

weather events -- and increasing the severity of those events --

This means means more and worse droughts/floods -- cyclones, tornadoes, hurricanes,

storms --

and Global Warming will also bring increased numbers of earthquakes -- and increasingly

severe earthquakes. That's one of the major reasons why Fukushima and the other plants

in earthquake-prone Japan should be all shut down. Seismic activity is increasing as

the Japanese scientists and officials well know. These plants should have been shut down

years ago when that information became clear. The plants were built to withstand

earthquakes up to 7.0 as I recall -- but Japan just suffered a 9.0!! With more than

350 aftershocks at rather high levels -- even up to 8 and 9.

Keeping any of these plants open is insane.

And, these plants in Japan will take even longer to shut down due to the complications

of their design --


Meanwhile, here in America, we have about 103/106 nuclear reactors -- some in California

built on fault lines!! We have two in Ohio on Lake Erie -- a source of drinking water!!

And, I've read that it would take 6 months to appropriately shut down our reactors.

Catastrophic weather doesn't given those kind of warnings - 6 months!!

[Octafish]

4. How convenient. Did Mongolia vote?

Least We the Corpse could do is ask.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. And to get it to Mongolia,

they would have to transport it in some way across Russia or China.

Doesn't sound workable to me.

[WatsonT]

12. Likely they did

and saw that they have a commodity that otherwise isn't worth much: endless expanses of worthless empty land and saw a chance to get some money out of it.

They aren't a rich country.

[Uncle Joe]

18. I would venture to say, not well educated either, it makes for an easy mark.

[Muskypundit]

6. That sounds like a security risk to me.

Putting a crap ton of nuclear material in a third world nation may not be our smartest idea. But then again neither is nuclear power. Its always lose lose with nukes.

[saras]

7. Win-win for the nutjobs

Economic boondoggle? check
Unusual seismically active zone? check
Massive screwing of another batch of the world's poor? check
Environmental catastrophe waiting to happen? check
Potential large-scale war along national/racial lines? check

What could possibly go wrong?

[classysassy]

8. Another third world country

used by the industrial elites to place the poor in harms way.How do those bastards sleep at night?.

[DeSwiss]

10. K&R

- This is shit. Why do we keep piling one stupidity upon another???

[marasinghe]

15. was wondering when Karma, for following that old school sociopath Genghis Khan, on his murderous ...

rampages, was gonna hit the poor sods in Mongolia. now they'll get to add a fresh set of mutations to the Blue Spot & their talent for producing circus contortionists.

wonder what China & Russia will have to say to this idea; oh, well, i guess all it takes is a couple of deposits in the right bank accounts & all's well.

[Bonobo]

17. The problem is that it's not true.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576313680900023752.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1072174


By PETER LANDERS

WASHINGTON—The U.S. and Japan confirmed Monday that they have held discussions with Mongolia about nuclear waste management, but both denied that they have any plans to send their spent nuclear fuel to the lightly populated Asian nation.

On Monday Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported that the U.S., Japan and Mongolia were set to sign an agreement over the project in February, but put it off after objections from Japan's Foreign Ministry. The newspaper said it would be easier for the U.S. and Japan to sell their nuclear-reactor technology overseas if they could offer countries a place to put their nuclear waste.

A Department of Energy spokeswoman said: "The U.S. government is not negotiating a deal to send spent nuclear fuel to Mongolia." She added, "No discussions or potential fuel leasing services involve U.S.-origin spent nuclear fuel."

Asked whether Japan was talking with Mongolia about nuclear-fuel storage, Japan's deputy foreign minister, Chiaki Takahashi, said at a news conference Monday that the countries had held an "informal exchange of views" about the subject. He said the talks didn't reach a conclusion and Japan doesn't intend to send its spent nuclear fuel to Mongolia.