Focus On Dry Cask Storage

Here's an informative piece on dry cask storage, one method nuclear power plants use to store used fuel:

Using items resembling a straw, a wide-mouthed water bottle and an insulated beverage jacket, the chief engineer at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant showed lawmakers how the company would like to store its used but highly radioactive fuel assemblies.

The process is called dry-cask storage and involves encasing irradiated fuel rods in protective layers so they can be moved out of their current storage site in a 40-foot deep pool inside the plant. The pool is nearly full of used fuel assemblies and Entergy Nuclear, owner of the 32-year-old plant, needs another storage option if it is going to keep Vermont Yankee operating through 2012, when its license expires.

To change the way it stores the radioactive rods, Entergy needs the Legislature's permission. The company wants lawmakers to act this year.

But dry cask storage is only a temporary solution until a centralized repository opens. To learn more, click here.

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