Dry Cask Storage

[wlrun3@aol.com]

   ...is there an issue with the long term integrity of dry casks at Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations...

[fueldryer]

   ...is there an issue with the long term integrity of dry casks at Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations...

What type of issue are you refering to?

[wlrun3@aol.com]

   ...point beach...

   ...aren't they good to just sit there and not be a problem for as long as we reasonably want...

[matthew.b]

   ...is there an issue with the long term integrity of dry casks at Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations...

Yeah, there is a major problem.  Luddites won't let us haul them off to reprocessing centers and recover the valuable unused U235 and plutonium in them.

Other than that, no...

[Nuclear Renaissance]

Stainless steel inside reinforced concrete, there for shielding and protection from external missiles and not because of internal pressure or stress/strain. Many of the interior steel portions are already designed for road transport if their destination ever becomes clear.

They will be fine for a long while.

[wlrun3@aol.com]

define "reasonably",....

   ...until there is a central repository...

[RDTroja]

   ...until there is a central repository...

Not quite that long. Only about 1000 years or so.

[wlrun3@aol.com]

   ...how many of the 65 sites have dry cask storage, how many have applied and how many have stated an intention to apply...

[PWHoppe]

Not quite that long. Only about 1000 years or so.

Or until Harry Reid is out of office (not a poly-sci thing just the reality of the Yucca situation)

[matthew.b]

I don't know how "good" I'd call the article.

The most egregious is: "Scientists from across the globe are searching for something better. Europe, Russia and Japan recycle spent fuel — meaning there is less waste to store. That practice was largely abandoned in the United States, because the process can produce weaponized plutonium, potentially sparking an international outcry."

No, it doesn't produce weaponized plutonium.  It makes reactor grade which is no where near as good for making a bomb.

"The waste will be fatal to humans and other animals for tens of thousands of years — yet the storage tombs are expected to last only a hundred years."

I think that makes it sound way worse than reality.  At 1000 years it isn't all that hot anymore.