Conventional and nuclear waste disposal: It will all come out in the wash
From
BBC Learning English: Come out in
the wash. The first meaning of the phrase is “everything will be OK.” The phrase can also be used to mean “the truth about
something will become clear over time.”
Opponents
of nuclear energy have made various arguments to convince the public that there
is no simple burial solution for nuclear waste. It cannot be neutralized and
there is no way to assure that it will be kept out of contact with the
ecosystem long into the future. One effective way to illustrate this is to
simply look at the existing record of how less problematic non-radioactive
toxic wastes have been handled. They also present enormous, costly challenges,
and unlike nuclear waste management projects, they have a longer record that
can be examined for indications of how nuclear waste disposal is likely to
proceed. Mines are often abandoned after companies finish exploiting them and declare
a planned “bankruptcy.” Tailing pond dams, which were supposed to be a
permanent solution, collapse after one or two decades and contaminate large
territories (see two recent disasters: this
one in Brazil, or and
the other in Canada). In the best case scenario, there are plans to bury
the waste in an apparently responsible manner, but even these efforts are often
a charade meant to dispose of protest as cheaply as possible while ignoring
flaws in the plan.
French
astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit (former director of Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique) has spoken on this
issue of conventional and radiological waste treatment on several occasions. In
an interview he gave in 2014 he stated:
In the year 2000, they began to store
various types of waste, one of which was mercury, underground at a mine in
Alsace. In 2002, a fire broke out. They wanted to get everything out, but they
realized it could never be recovered… A fire in a mine is more complicated to
manage than a fire above ground. It’s like an oven. The heat has no way out. A
small fire can quickly result in elevated temperatures at which the containers
begin to melt.
In Bure [site of a nuclear waste facility
under construction], a fire would be catastrophic. The wastes are vitrified (in
a glass-like state), but glass is not really a solid. It’s a very viscous
fluid. At ordinary temperatures, it can do the job for thousands of years. It
is not soluble. But the weak point of glass is its low resistance to heat. At
600°C, the glass will flow and liberate its contents. Underground, this
temperature could be reached very quickly. In the mine there are also support
structures made of metal and reinforced concrete. Concrete melts above 1100°. The clay in Bure
is also saturated with water. It couldn’t withstand being heated above 70°. The
creators of the CIGEO project have great faith in a material called bentonite
with which they hope to seal the caverns. It’s a particular type of clay that
can absorb water and dilate, but it has the same problem as clay in terms of
heat resistance.
Fire hazards come not only from the concern
about hydrogen explosions. The plan at Bure is to deposit some elements treated
with bitumen, but bitumen becomes fluid at 60° and flammable at 300°. Any way
you look at it, this project [Bure] is absurd.[1]
See
the full interview about French nuclear waste disposal plans here
(this is a translation of the article in French listed in the notes)
Recently,
the site in Alsace was back in the news in France as environmental groups reported
on the failure, and likely the long-intended failure, of their local waste
disposal site called Stocamine. The story there has obvious implications for how
civilization will rise to the challenge of long-term management of nuclear
wastes. France and many other nations are now on the verge of civil war over working
class struggles for a decent standard of living. When governments declare that they
cannot afford to give their citizens housing, education, retirement benefits,
and health care, it is hard to take seriously their claims that they have
everything under control when it comes to the long-term management of toxic
wastes.
The
following is a translation of a short report about Stocamine by France Nature Environnement.
The State reneges
on assurances given to Alsace regarding environmental protection
Translation of :
Stocamine
: l’Etat renonce à assurer la sécurité sanitaire et environnementale de
l’Alsace, France
Nature Environnement, 2019/01/22
In
1999, the end of potash mining in Alsace and the necessity of managing the
dangerous wastes led the State to open Stocamine, a storage site for the waste
products of former mines, situated below one of the largest groundwater tables
in Europe. This was done despite all the objections made by local opponents.
The choice was made at the time purely for economic reasons without any knowledge
of how to manage the wastes, and this has had some serious consequences
according to the organizations France
Nature Environnement, FNE Grand Est,
and Alsace Nature.
 |
| From a report by Reporterre: 42.000 tonnes of industrial wastes to remain buried at Stocamine, in spite of the risk of pollution of the largest groundwater source in Europe. This was the unilateral decision of Minister Francois Rugy, made in spite of local opposition and a report that concluded removal of the wastes is feasible. |
Stocamine, a
failure foretold
At
first, Stocamine was supposed to contain dangerous industrial wastes for 30
years, with “reversibility” being a key word. With this plan, the State waved away
the concerns of local opponents (environmentalists, consumers): no fires, no subsidence,
no floods would be possible—the site would be controlled, and reversibility
would be guaranteed. Yet, in less than five years of operation, there was a
fire, unauthorized materials had been stored, and the walls and ceilings were
collapsing slowly on the stored wastes. In 2017, the State decided to prolong
storage authorization with no limits imposed, and this revealed the difficulty
the State had in hiding its real intention: this temporary storage site was to
become permanent.
Collectively all
groups opposed have always pressured the State to remove the waste products
from Stocamine
Right
from the start different groups concerned raised the alarm about the risks
associated with storing 44,000 tons of dangerous wastes 500 meters underground.
These were local elected officials, parliamentarians, and citizens groups who
came together to stress the flaws in the proposed solution, but their warnings
were never taken into account. Meanwhile, despite a critical parliamentary
report published in 2018, the minister has made a unilateral decision to keep
the materials in place. This decision was motivated by purely budgetary reasons
and it ignores the demonstrated risks of collapse and the flow of pollutants
into the groundwater. In order to cut costs this year, the State has decided to
leave 44,000 tons of waste underground, leaving an immense burden of debt to
future generations.
Tectonic plates are
the reason for the stubbornness of the State
Over
time, movements of the earth will inexorably deform the galleries and release mercury
and other substances into the groundwater. The container seals, the integrity
of which cannot be guaranteed, will not suffice to protect the water. This
groundwater source is precious, one of the most important in Europe that
provides drinking water to France, Germany and Switzerland. Its quality is
already greatly reduced from industrial and agricultural wastes, and if France
wants to achieve the goal stated by the Water Resource Directive (Directive Cadre Eau), it is imperative
to remove the wastes stored in Stocamine.
For
Daniel Reininger, president of Alsace
Nature, the bipolarity of the State has reached its paroxysm because on the
one hand it has signed the Contract for Solutions for Alsacian groundwater with
the ambitious goal of distributing pure drinking water that doesn’t require
treatment, and on the other hand it has buried these dangerous wastes below the
groundwater source.
For
Michel Dubromel, president of France
Nature Environnement, Stocamine
reveals a great deal about the inability of the State to guarantee safe storage
of dangerous wastes. If in ten years it has not been able to guarantee the
storage of dangerous wastes, it cannot guarantee the safety of nuclear waste
disposal in Bure where storage is planned for at least 120 years. It is
irresponsible. The protection of health of the population should take priority
over purely economic reasons.
_____
[1] J-P. Petit : « Les
déchets nucléaires, bombe à retardement planétaire » (Partie 1), Sputnik, February 17, 2014.
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