washington – thirty-seven years ago, congress decided the federal government should be responsible for disposing of the waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants. but the waste still is being stored at the plants today.

several leading senators want the federal government to step up to its commitment by switching from the permanent repository site that had been proposed – yucca mountain in nevada – and put the nation’s 80,000 metric tons of spent fuel into several centralized interim storages. experts say the proposal would save millions of dollars without compromising safety. but the local opposition that eventually doomed the yucca mountain site is likely to occur at any interim sites.

economics of nuclear waste

a small parking lot sits by the shore of the back river in bailey point peninsula, maine. sixty-four white concrete casks, each one 26 feet high, stand in lines on the lot. they are the storage system for the spent nuclear fuel – the only reminder of the maine yankee nuclear power plant, which completed its decommissioning in 2005 and demolished.

the lot is approximately 11 acres, a minuscule share of the former 800-acre plant site, but the federal government has spent $176.5 million since 1998 to maintain the storage system, and the cost is growing by $10 million every year, according to eric howes, spokesman for the yankee companies, which include maine yankee and another two decommissioned yankee nuclear power plants in massachusetts and connecticut.

“the only reason we’re still in business is because the federal government has yet to remove the spent fuel,” howes said.

maine yankee is one of the 80 plants across the country that store spent nuclear fuel onsite. seventeen are shuttered plants like maine yankee, while others are still in operation. onsite storage of spent fuel is an expensive process. it requires 24/7 security and periodical monitoring to make sure the chemicals inside the casks are in good condition; the companies have successfully sued the federal government to cover the storage costs.

a 1982 law decided it’s the federal government, not private companies, that is responsible for disposing the nuclear waste, and congress in 1987 designated yucca mountain as the single central point for storage. it was to be operational by 1998. two decades have passed, and paying for the waste storage to 80 sites has cost the federal government $7 billion.

“the real crime here is what is happening to the taxpayers,” said rodney mccullum, senior director of fuel and decommissioning at the nuclear energy institute, a nuclear power advocacy organization funded by the nuclear industry. “a tremendous amount of infrastructure goes into keeping these casks safe and the taxpayers are paying for every penny of it.”

for communities where the closed plants are located, the economic damage has included the lost tax revenue from the plant and the difficulty in repurposing the land.

wiscasset, the town hosting maine yankee, collected $700,000 in taxes from the plant last year, a drop from $12 million when it was operating. although many of those plants –like maine yankee –have hundreds of acres of vacant land, it is very difficult to get new businesses to locate on the land.

“the land is basically useless as long as the spent fuel is sitting there,” mccullum said. “technically, i can tell you i could build a luxury condominium right next to those used fuel and it would be perfectly safe. but that’s not how real estate works.”

the new plan

to remove the spent fuel, the original plan was to build a permanent repository in yucca mountain, nevada. but although the site was designated by congress in 1987 and around $15 billion was spent on evaluating and developing the site, the plan stalled in 2009 after strong opposition from nevada politicians.

in april, republican sens. murkowski of alaska and lamar alexander of tennessee and democratic sen. dianne feinstein of california introduced a bill that proposes to build a few centralized interim storage sites of spent nuclear fuel. the bill also would establish an independent federal agency to manage nuclear waste and design a consent-based approach to determine the sites of nuclear waste storage facilities.

“storing fuel in one or two locations will be less expensive than storing it at the 17 locations where the reactors are currently shut down,” mccullum said. the idea is to gather concrete casks from “small parking lots” across the country to a few larger parking lots and centralize the management.

“these are passive systems with no moving parts, the number of people and amount of equipment you have to have, train and maintain doesn’t grow as much as you add casks,” mccullum said, “i think it’s safe to say the savings would be in the millions.”

and centralized storage won’t increase the safety risk, mccullum said, because “the [casks] don’t interact with each other and they are built to the same rigorous safety standards.”

before the bill was introduced, two companies – holtec international in new mexico and interim storage partners in texas – had filed applications for consolidated interim storage site to the nuclear regulatory commission.

nrc spokesman david mcintyre said both applications are still in early stages of technical, safety and environmental reviews with an expectation to finish in spring or early summer 2021. mcintyre said it is “uncertain if [the bill] will have a direct impact on either application review.”

like yucca mountain, sites in new mexico and texas face opposition from local politicians. new mexico gov. michelle lujan grisham wrote, in a letter to the department of energy and nrc, that the project poses an “unacceptable risk” to oil, gas and agriculture industries surrounding the site. and texas gov. greg abbott vetoed a popular domestic violence bill because of an unrelated provision about radioactive waste fees.

“unfortunately, the bill author’s good idea about domestic violence has been dragged down by a bad idea about radioactive waste,” abbott wrote in his veto statement.

consent-based approach

the senate bill makes it clear that choosing a site for nuclear waste storage facilities would need local consent, which includes approval of local government and the governor. but social scientists argue consent should be more than that.

“lasting consent is essential, and it has to come from more than just the elected officials,” said seth tuler, an associate professor at worcester polytechnic institute who is an expert in risk governance and policies in nuclear waste management. elected officials come and go, tuler said, “and they were not elected to make this decision.”

the bill would give discretion to the proposed new agency for deciding whether communities contiguous to the storage facilities would be included in the consent-seeking process. tuler said neighboring communities and communities through which nuclear waste is transported should have a say in the decision-making process.

“imposing a decision on local community in the states hasn’t worked very well. in fact, it hasn’t worked at all,” tuler said. “yucca mountain is a perfect example.”

——

editor’s note: a quote attributed to seth tuler has been clarified, and a new version of this story published july 25, 2019. 

washington –a bipartisan group of senators has revived the longstanding issue of where to store and dispose of nuclear waste with a new bill proposing centralized interim storage while a search for a permanent disposal site is conducted.

thirty-two years ago, congress designated yucca mountain in the nevada desert 90 miles northwest of las vegas, as the permanent repository for all u.s. nuclear waste, and spent $15 billion on the site throughout the years. but facing strong local opposition, the site was never put into use and the project was abandoned by then-energy secretary steven chu in 2009.

three bills aimed at solving the nuclear waste disposal problem have been introduced since then, but all failed to get congressional approval. the latest attempt was introduced in april by alaska sen. lisa murkowski and tennessee sen. lamar alexander, both republicans, and california sen. dianne feinstein, a democrat.

“do we continue to delay in the face of the stalemate over yucca, or do we try to find another path forward for used fuel storage?” murkowski asked at a senate energy and natural resources committee hearing on the measure thursday.

the bill would establish a federal agency to manage nuclear waste by finding storage sites while looking for a permanent disposal location. the agency would be required to get buy-in for a site from area residents as well as the state’s governor and the local government.

the interim storage sites are intended to circumvent the kind of opposition gridlock that surrounded the yucca mountain site.

every day, the federal government spends $2.2 million to store a total of 80,000 metric tons of radioactive spent nuclear fuel at 80 nuclear power plants – some still operating, some closed, according to the government accountability office and nuclear energy institute. it will take thousands of years for the spent fuel to decay. a 1982 law made the u.s., not the private companies that operate the plants, responsible for disposing of the nuclear waste.

the lack of a permanent solution to nuclear waste storage has hampered the development of the nuclear power industry, said steve nesbit, chair of the american nuclear society’s public policy division, who represents 10,000 nuclear scientists and engineers.

but geoffrey fettus, senior attorney of the environmental advocacy group natural resources defense council, said in written testimony that the bill “prioritizes consolidated storage at the expense of a meaningful repository program,” adding that storage sites could become de facto repositories.

maria korsnick, president of nuclear energy institute, told the committee it should seek to make yucca mountain the viable permanent site alongside authorizing interim storage in order to alleviate concerns like those of fettus that interim storage will become permanent repositories.

but maine sen. angus king indicated that even finding interim storage sites could face the same fate as the yucca mountain site.

“what if every state says no?” he asked.

as an intern at a federal agency for the past 4 months, i had the opportunity to contribute to an organization-wide transition toward more efficient and accountable business practices. working in the program management department responsible for implementing the transition exposed me to a variety of obstacles common to large-scale change. the issues the program management department addressed were chronic and relevant to almost every employee in the agency. the decision-making process for middle management was not only often inefficient, but also overly hierarchical and opaque to normal employees. nevertheless, there were contrasting visions of how the agency could improve its work and best serve its clients. some were too stubborn to adjust their own management methods to new standards, while others interpreted the new process as a burden to employees who already had numerous documentation requirements.

clashing perspectives and priorities were pervasive even among those in support of the program management department’s efforts. even minute details of the program management tools required many layers of review from different groups of stakeholders. my internship was relatively brief, but these fault lines within the agency were immediately apparent. however, there were passionate civil servants across these divisions who seemed genuinely dedicated to improving the agency’s work and serving the public.

the media often portrays the government as a monolith that is unresponsive to new circumstances and inflexible to change. bureaucratic impediments in government surely exist, however, i was exposed to a much more complex and optimistic reality. many government employees are aware of and enthusiastically strive to resolve systemic issues in their agencies. the process may be time-consuming, but thorough deliberation is necessary to any process that affects thousands of employees and uses public funds. being bold enough to demand radical change is just as important as understanding how both large public and private systems process transitions.

this perspective developed my own outlook as i considered the scope of work necessary to make the world more sustainable. while an organization’s “culture” of sustainability is typically judged by its environmental impact or social awareness, management-employee relations and the distribution of day-to-day decision-making power also deserves scrutiny. aside from fair compensation and benefits, organizations can empower its employees by providing structural opportunities for collaboration and meaningful contribution to the business process. distinct organizational hierarchies are often necessary as a practical matter of mitigating risk and matching competency with a proportional degree of responsibility.

however, imbalanced power dynamics in work environments can undermine the importance of collaboration and even dehumanize the individual entry-level employee. changing these dynamics is not always possible in the short-term, however, looking for opportunities to improve the way that people interact with their social and professional environments is at the core of developing innovative sustainable solutions. as more organizations begin using the language of sustainability, it is important that those in power have the tools and incentives to initiate bold conversations and ideas regardless of how difficult they are to implement.

washington — the national park service is trying to keep exempt its safety personnel from president donald trump’s 90-day federal hiring freeze, but park advocates and former nps employees worry that without the 10,000 seasonal workers who may be cut through attrition, visitors won’t be safe and parks could suffer environmental and economic hits.

trump’s signed memorandum stated no federal agency can fill vacant positions or create new ones for 90 days, when the office of management and budget will present a long-term plan to reduce the size of federal government, which is less than 2% of the total u.s. labor force.

national park service officials have been warning that the country’s parks are so understaffed that routine maintenance can’t be done and the safety and enjoyment of park visitors is suffering. they also have pointed to a $12 billion backlog in maintenance projects.

according to the million-member national parks conservation association, nps had more than 10% fewer employees in 2015 compared with five years earlier, and park staff already have been performing “collateral duties” beyond their jobs.

“the nps has 1,700 permanent vacancies that are caught in this freeze,” said maureen finnerty, chair of the coalition to protect america’s national parks. “that’s 8 to 10% of the (nps) workforce. … even if you found all the money to put into the backlog, you’re already starting your next backlog unless you provide funds to workers to maintain those facilities.”

during his confirmation hearing, interior secretary nominee rep. ryan zinke said he wants to “prioritize” the backlog. the montana republican also said that one of his immediate tasks would be “to ensure the professionals on the front line, our rangers and field managers, have the right tools, right resources, and flexibility to make the right decisions that give a voice to the people they serve.”

the park service said in a statement it will work with the department of the interior “to ensure that personnel responsible for the safety and protection of our visitors and park resources are exempt from this hiring freeze.” this exemption proposal would likely include wildland firefighters, but not seasonal employment, which comprises 10,000 workers who nps called “critical” to “quality and safe experiences” for peak visitation.

“if the freeze applies to those people, it will have a huge impact on parks’ ability to serve the public,” finnerty said.

according to finnerty, who is a former superintendent of olympic and everglade national parks, parks have already done a lot of consolidating to cut costs. smaller parks are put under bigger parks, and some administration positions are shared.

“further squeezing is going to be devastating for the organization,” she said.

white house press secretary sean spicer falsely claimed at his first press conference this week that the “squeeze” by attrition “counters the dramatic expansion of the federal workforce in recent years.” in reality, the federal workforce has remained more or less stagnant since the 1960s.

but national parks are having trouble keeping up with double-digit visitor increases because of a lack of staff; in 2016 for example, zion national park had to accommodate a nearly 18% increase in visitors.

meanwhile, rogue twitter accounts have sprouted up claiming to unofficially represent different government agencies, including the park service.

average sea level is expected to rise 1 – 6 ft before the end of this century @potus @realdonaldtrump #climatefacts #climate #science

— badlands nat’l park (@badlands_nps) january 26, 2017

“altusnatparkservice”, “badlands nat’l park” and the “altepa” are among the accounts started by scientists, journalists, park rangers and activists to tweet about climate change and speak out against the trump administration. on thursday, the rogue badlands account fired off a #climatefacts twitter storm that trended on the site, including:

7 million people die every year due to air pollution. burning fossil fuels are largely responsible @potus @realdonaldtrump #climatefacts

— badlands nat’l park (@badlands_nps) january 26, 2017

the official badlands account was “compromised” on tuesday by a former employee who tweeted facts about climate change, park officials said. before they were deleted, the tweets were screen-captured and shared thousands of times.

after trump order epa not talk on social media, badlands national park went rogue & viral with these tweets… which got deleted 10min ago: pic.twitter.com/4rriuego2i

— scientists for eu (@scientists4eu) january 24, 2017

here are the top five interesting updates in federal sustainability we heard about at greengov:

1. the general services administration (gsa) just issued a proposal request to have solar roofs installed on 18 federal buildings throughout the national capital region.

the photovoltaic array on top of the u.s. department of energy headquarters. (source: national renewable energy laboratory, u.s. department of energy)

this is part of the capital solar challenge that has federal agencies competing to see whose buildings can become most efficient. if approved, gsa will enter a power purchase agreement contract with a single contractor to purchase electricity generated from these photovoltaic systems for a base period of ten years.

this is awesome because a large capital investment from a buyer such as the government gives the renewable energy sector leverage to expand and extend further opportunities in solar to other agencies, big companies, and small businesses alike. with solar the second fastest growing energy sector, this is great news for the climate.

2.the u.s. navy has an all-electric ship, the uss zumwalt ddg 1000.

 
the zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer ddg 1000 is floated out of dry dock at the general dynamics bath iron works shipyard. the ship, the first of three zumwalt-class destroyers, will provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces and operate as part of joint and combined expeditionary forces. the lead ship and class are named in honor of former chief of naval operations adm. elmo r. “bud” zumwalt jr., who served as chief of naval operations from 1970-1974. (source: u.s. navy, photo courtesy of general dynamics)

the uss zumwalt’s microgrid generates and distributes electrical energy everywhere in the ship, so its propellers and drive shafts are turned by electric motors instead of being directly attached to combustion engines. this could pave the way for future integration of biogas and other renewable energy sources in military vessels and vehicles. hopefully these electrical systems and energy efficiency innovations will then trickle down into the next generation of civilian electric vehicles.

3. by 2022, the u.s. aims to become the first nation in the world to produce plug-in electric vehicles (evs) that are as cheap and convenient as gas vehicles.

 
an all-electric nissan leaf charging at an event in washington, d.c. (source: national renewable energy laboratory, department of energy)

the ev-everywhere challenge, announced by president obama in march 2012, calls for collaboration between the private sector, the federal government, states and communities, national laboratories, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and individual consumers to modernize the grid, increase charger accessibility, and generate larger demand for evs and ev infrastructure.

4. federal agencies are required to buy eco-friendly bio-based products such as hand soap derived from soybeans, furniture from sunflower hull wood or disposable spoons from potatoes.

 
soy-based products. (source: united soybean board)

where purchases exceed more than $10,000 per fiscal year, federal agencies are required to give preference to the products with the highest percentage of bio-based content (these items can be made with biodegradable plastics and adhesives, construction materials, paper, plastics, plant and vegetable inks, and more). this green purchasing program, in substituting bio-based products for fossil energy-based products, will increase demand for domestic crops and feedstock. because there are less synthetic chemicals involved in the production, consumption and disposal of these items, they’re a lot better for the environment.

5. retrofitting in one gsa building on the virgin islands is going to create net-zero energy consumption and save $500,000 in the first year.

christiansted, st. croix, us virgin islands. facing north. photo taken on the slopes of recovery hill. (source: jason p. heym)

as part of the deep retrofit challenge, gsa went into a 19-year energy savings performance contract with schneider electric to upgrade the almeric christian federal building. they upgraded the building’s chilled water and automated energy metering systems, made improvements to interior and exterior lighting, heating and cooling systems to maximize efficiency, and added solar photovoltaic panels. these changes will result in a savings of 962,916 kilowatt hours per year, which provides enough energy for 100 percent of the building’s baseline usage.

in order to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk. the u.s. government is making strides to lead by example, as shown by these, and more recent federal sustainability initiatives. to see more on the greengov symposium, visit the event website. 

(photo at top: kathleen merrigan, far right, moderates a q&a on executive order 13693 with christy goldfuss, managing director for the white house council on environmental quality, and kate brandt, federal chief sustainability officer for the council on environmental quality. merrigan is the executive director of sustainability at the george washington university. / source: eleanor davis/gwu)

recorded at the business response to climate change at the george washington university, february 10th 2011

atthecenterofitall.business.gwu.edu/​2011/​02/​10/​business-response-to-climate-change/​

“invisivent” is an air conditioning vent that supports most ceiling fans or light fixtures to increase the airflow and reduce your energy cost up to 30%. these innovative vents are tested to support 250lbs of weight. this bold and energy efficient product can be used in various ways throughout residential and commercial construction.

(1) lowering the interstate speed limit to 55 mph (and enforcing it) would save thousands of lives and i don’t know how many billions of barrels of oil without sacrificing the sacrosanct american standard of living.

(2) between 2002 and 2008, the feds doled out $72 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel industries and $29 billion for renewables (half of which was for ethanol which is quite possibly even worse than oil)–see eli.org.

(3) when gas hit $4 gallon, people gave up their suvs and manufacturers dropped plans for new models. when gas prices dropped, suv sales went up. americans have short memories–keep a floor of at least $4/gallon under the price of gas and we’ll see sustained policy shifts.

you would be wrong.

from a friday, may 7 press release from the center for biological diversity:

even as the bp drilling explosion which killed eleven people continues to gush hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil per day into the gulf of mexico, the u.s. department of interior’s minerals management service (mms) has continued to exempt dangerous new drilling operations from environmental review. twenty-seven new offshore drilling projects have been approved since april 20, 2010; twenty-six under the same environmental review exemption used to approve the disastrous bp drilling that is fouling the gulf and its wildlife. […]

“salazar is playing a cynical shell game, making the public think he stopped issuing the faulty approvals that allowed the disastrous bp drilling to occur, when in fact he has given mms the green light to keep issuing those very same approvals,” said [cbd executive director kieran suckling]. “the only thing salazar has stopped is the final, technical check off which comes long after the environmental review. his media sleight of hand does nothing to fix the broken system that allowed what may be the greatest environmental catastrophe of our generation to occur.”

“for secretary salazar to allow mms to exempt 26 new oil wells from environmental review in the midst of the ongoing gulf crisis shows an extraordinary lapse of judgment. it is inconceivable that his attention is apparently on providing bp with new environmentally exempted offshore oil wells instead of shutting down the corrupt process which put billion of dollars into bp’s pocket and millions of gallons of oil into the gulf of mexico.”

the release provides side-by-side comparisons of the doomed deepwater horizon mississippi canyon exploration plan and a green canyon plan approved on may 6. unbelievably, some mms functionary actually signed off on a plan with the following: “ii.j. blowout scenario – information not required for activities proposed in this initial exploration plan.”

it occurred to me that maybe an “initial exploration plan” is just about underwater geological surveying — i don’t know, a little robot sub or probe gives the seabed a whack with a piledriver and records the seismic echoes or something. but no, the mms-approved green canyon plan has sections like “drilling fluids” and “oil spill response discussion” — and for the latter, laconically notes “information not required for activities proposed in this initial exploration plan.” just before that (p. 7), the exploration plan (again, approved late last week) asserts:

since bp has the capability to respond to the worst-case spill scenario included in its regional oil spill response plan approved on july 21, 2009, and since the worst-case scenario determined for their ep does not replace the worst-case scenario in their regional osrp, bp exploration & production inc. hereby certifies that they have the capability to respond, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst-case discharge, or a substantial threat of such a discharge, resulting from the activities proposed in their ep.

mcclatchy newspapers’ marisa taylor got the mms side of the story, such as it is:

the exemptions, known as “categorical exclusions,” were granted by the interior department’s minerals management service (mms) and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a bp exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an anadarko petroleum corp. exploration plan at more 9,000 feet.

“is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?” asked peter galvin, conservation director with the center for biological diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration’s continued approval of the exemptions. “possibly the worst environmental disaster in u.s. history has occurred and nothing appears to have changed.”

mms officials said the exemptions are continuing to be issued because they do not represent final drilling approval.

they do appear to represent business as usual. in an article for the new republic (“the crisis comes ashore“), al gore echoes galvin:

even as the oil spill continues to grow—even as bp warns that the flow could increase multi-fold, to 60,000 barrels per day, and that it may continue for months—the head of the american petroleum institute, jack gerard, says, “nothing has changed. when we get back to the politics of energy, oil and natural gas are essential to the economy and our way of life.” his reaction reminds me of the day elvis presley died. upon hearing the tragic news, presley’s manager, colonel tom parker, said, “this changes nothing.”

it certainly doesn’t seem to have changed anything for the mms, ken salazar, or — assuming the buck actually stops with him — barack obama.