Major problems at a salt mine where 126,000 drums of radioactive debris are stored are fuelling public distrust of long-term waste disposal plans, reports Fred Pearce from Asse, Germany
Enough plutonium-bearing radioactive waste is stored here to fill 20 Olympic swimming pools. When engineers backfilled the chambers containing 126,000 drums in the 1970s, they thought they had put it out of harm’s way forever.
But now, the walls of the Asse mine are collapsing and cracks forming, thanks to pressure from surrounding rocks. So the race is on to dig it all up before radioactive residues are flushed to the surface.
A short film by a government advisory body carries a stark message: the nation faces a crisis over storing its spent nuclear fuel after running reactors for decades.
From the August 2009 Scientific American Magazine | 40 comments Yucca Mountain was supposed to be the answer to the U.S.'s nuclear waste problem, but after 22 years and $9 billion, that vision is dead. Now, some say that doing nothing in the near term ma
Ecomafia: le “navi a perdere” e lo smaltimento illegale delle scorie radioattive. Navi che affondano, rifiuti che spariscono: un business da miliardi di euro. Le denunce di Legambiente e del WWF. Lo strano caso della motonave Rosso. Carlo Lucarelli.
“Dobbiamo scongiurare il rischio – ha sottolineato Cogliati Dezza – che questa vicenda venga sottovalutata, mentre in realtà è in ballo il futuro dell’ambiente, del turismo, della legalità, dell’economia. C’è bisogno di un forte segnale che dia speranza a