Tournament: Voices | Round: Octas | Opponent: Harrison Wang | Judge: Arjun Tambe, David Dosch, Paras Kumar
same framework as stock ac
Plan text
Resolved: Countries ought to prohibit the production of nuclear power from high burn-up fuel.
Hoffman ’13:
Ace Hoffman, an independent investigator, has been studying the problems of nuclear power for many decades. His 2008 handbook of nuclear facts, called The Code Killers, is available for free download here: www.acehoffman.org SEPTEMBER 27, 2013 The Trouble with High Burn-Up Nuclear Fuel www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/27/the-trouble-with-high-burn-up-nuclear-fuel/
However, despite these “known unknowns,” high burn-up fuel is being
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to let the utilities get away with using high burn-up fuel!
Accidents Adv
Inherency
Spent fuel on the rise – doubling by 2048. Alvarez 8-11:
11 AUGUST 2016 Nuclear power plant? Or storage dump for hot radioactive waste? Robert Alvarez A senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Robert Alvarez served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department's secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. During this tenure, he led teams in North Korea to establish control of nuclear weapons materials. He also coordinated the Energy Department's nuclear material strategic planning and established the department's first asset management program. Before joining the Energy Department, Alvarez served for five years as a senior investigator for the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. John Glenn, and as one of the Senate’s primary staff experts on the US nuclear weapons program. In 1975, Alvarez helped found and direct the Environmental Policy Institute, a respected national public interest organization. He also helped organize a successful lawsuit on behalf of the family of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear worker and active union member who was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1974. Alvarez has published articles in Science, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Technology Review, and The Washington Post. He has been featured in television programs such as NOVA and 60 Minutes. thebulletin.org/nuclear-power-plant-or-storage-dump-hot-radioactive-waste9775#.V63firJAd-8.twitter
In addition to generating electricity, US nuclear power plants are now major radioactive waste
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high burnup waste accounting for as much as 60 percent of the inventory.
Ban needed now – must happen before future loading. Gilmore ‘14:
High Burnup Fuel Fact Sheet Posted on January 8, 2014 by Donna Gilmore High Burnup Nuclear Fuel Pushing the Safety Envelope by Marvin Resnikoff 1 and Donna Gilmore 2 January 2014 https://sanonofresafety.org/2014/01/08/high-burnup-fuel-fact-sheet-2/ Donna Gilmore is the founder of San Onofre Safety, an organization that provides factual government and scientific information on the serious safety issues found at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in Southern California. Since the closure of the nuclear reactors, the focus of the organization has turned from operational safety issues to issues of nuclear spent fuel storage at San Onofre and other California and U.S. locations. The San Onofre Safety website (sanonofresafety.org) is used around the world by journalists, engineers, elected officials, regulators and the general public for creditable sourced information on nuclear safety issues. Gilmore was part of local efforts to educate the public on the San Onofre steam generator problems. The reactors are permanently shut down. However, the 1680 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste at the plant are still very active. Recent papers by Gilmore include: High Burnup Nuclear Fuel – Pushing the Safety Envelope (co‐authored with nuclear physicist Dr. Marvin Resnikoff), Diablo Canyon: Conditions for Stress Corrosion Cracking in Two Years, Reasons to Buy Thick Nuclear Waste Dry Storage Casks, and Myths About Nuclear Waste Storage. Gilmore has made presentations on nuclear waste storage issues at national, state and local venues, including the 2014 NRC Annual Spent Fuel Management Regulatory Conference, the 2015 California Democratic Convention (Environmental Caucus), the Malibu Democratic Club, the California Energy Commission, and California Coastal Commission, the Sierra Club and other NGO venues. Gilmore also educates federal, state and local regulators and elected officials and activists on critical nuclear waste storage issues. Gilmore has effectively advocated for improved nuclear waste storage safety evaluations in federal and state regulatory proceedings. She is an intervener in the CPUC $4.3 billon San Onofre Decommissioning proceeding, which may likely determine the future of nuclear waste storage at San Onofre. Gilmore has over 30 years experience in systems analysis and information technology project management including the design and implementation of major technology systems for the State of California and the management of a large engineering data center.
It is imperative to the NRC Stop approval of high burnup fuel (
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8 GWd/MTU, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.24
Links
A) High burnup fuel is awful: A) It cracks and thins the cladding. B) It’s twice as radioactive and hot C) Cooling pools are already densely packed, magnifying accident risks. Gilmore TWO:
High Burnup Fuel Fact Sheet Posted on January 8, 2014 by Donna Gilmore High Burnup Nuclear Fuel Pushing the Safety Envelope by Marvin Resnikoff 1 and Donna Gilmore 2 January 2014 https://sanonofresafety.org/2014/01/08/high-burnup-fuel-fact-sheet-2/ Donna Gilmore is the founder of San Onofre Safety, an organization that provides factual government and scientific information on the serious safety issues found at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in Southern California. Since the closure of the nuclear reactors, the focus of the organization has turned from operational safety issues to issues of nuclear spent fuel storage at San Onofre and other California and U.S. locations. The San Onofre Safety website (sanonofresafety.org) is used around the world by journalists, engineers, elected officials, regulators and the general public for creditable sourced information on nuclear safety issues. Gilmore was part of local efforts to educate the public on the San Onofre steam generator problems. The reactors are permanently shut down. However, the 1680 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste at the plant are still very active. Recent papers by Gilmore include: High Burnup Nuclear Fuel – Pushing the Safety Envelope (co‐authored with nuclear physicist Dr. Marvin Resnikoff), Diablo Canyon: Conditions for Stress Corrosion Cracking in Two Years, Reasons to Buy Thick Nuclear Waste Dry Storage Casks, and Myths About Nuclear Waste Storage. Gilmore has made presentations on nuclear waste storage issues at national, state and local venues, including the 2014 NRC Annual Spent Fuel Management Regulatory Conference, the 2015 California Democratic Convention (Environmental Caucus), the Malibu Democratic Club, the California Energy Commission, and California Coastal Commission, the Sierra Club and other NGO venues. Gilmore also educates federal, state and local regulators and elected officials and activists on critical nuclear waste storage issues. Gilmore has effectively advocated for improved nuclear waste storage safety evaluations in federal and state regulatory proceedings. She is an intervener in the CPUC $4.3 billon San Onofre Decommissioning proceeding, which may likely determine the future of nuclear waste storage at San Onofre. Gilmore has over 30 years experience in systems analysis and information technology project management including the design and implementation of major technology systems for the State of California and the management of a large engineering data center.
As commercial reactor economics have declined, utilities, with the acquiescence of the Nuclear
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pool densities present an even greater risk due to inclusion of HBF assemblies.
B) This is a criticality event waiting to happen - Squo cladding was not designed for high burn-up fuel. Hoffman ’13:
Ace Hoffman, an independent investigator, has been studying the problems of nuclear power for many decades. His 2008 handbook of nuclear facts, called The Code Killers, is available for free download here: www.acehoffman.org SEPTEMBER 27, 2013 The Trouble with High Burn-Up Nuclear Fuel www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/27/the-trouble-with-high-burn-up-nuclear-fuel/
Additionally, in high burn-up fuel, the ceramic pellets of Uranium Dioxide
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to let the utilities get away with using high burn-up fuel!
C) Transportation risks are real. Gilmore THREE:
High Burnup Fuel Fact Sheet Posted on January 8, 2014 by Donna Gilmore High Burnup Nuclear Fuel Pushing the Safety Envelope by Marvin Resnikoff 1 and Donna Gilmore 2 January 2014 https://sanonofresafety.org/2014/01/08/high-burnup-fuel-fact-sheet-2/ Donna Gilmore is the founder of San Onofre Safety, an organization that provides factual government and scientific information on the serious safety issues found at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in Southern California. Since the closure of the nuclear reactors, the focus of the organization has turned from operational safety issues to issues of nuclear spent fuel storage at San Onofre and other California and U.S. locations. The San Onofre Safety website (sanonofresafety.org) is used around the world by journalists, engineers, elected officials, regulators and the general public for creditable sourced information on nuclear safety issues. Gilmore was part of local efforts to educate the public on the San Onofre steam generator problems. The reactors are permanently shut down. However, the 1680 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste at the plant are still very active. Recent papers by Gilmore include: High Burnup Nuclear Fuel – Pushing the Safety Envelope (co‐authored with nuclear physicist Dr. Marvin Resnikoff), Diablo Canyon: Conditions for Stress Corrosion Cracking in Two Years, Reasons to Buy Thick Nuclear Waste Dry Storage Casks, and Myths About Nuclear Waste Storage. Gilmore has made presentations on nuclear waste storage issues at national, state and local venues, including the 2014 NRC Annual Spent Fuel Management Regulatory Conference, the 2015 California Democratic Convention (Environmental Caucus), the Malibu Democratic Club, the California Energy Commission, and California Coastal Commission, the Sierra Club and other NGO venues. Gilmore also educates federal, state and local regulators and elected officials and activists on critical nuclear waste storage issues. Gilmore has effectively advocated for improved nuclear waste storage safety evaluations in federal and state regulatory proceedings. She is an intervener in the CPUC $4.3 billon San Onofre Decommissioning proceeding, which may likely determine the future of nuclear waste storage at San Onofre. Gilmore has over 30 years experience in systems analysis and information technology project management including the design and implementation of major technology systems for the State of California and the management of a large engineering data center.
As commercial reactor economics have declined, utilities, with the acquiescence of the Nuclear
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easily shatter the brittle cladding. HBF has over twice the cesium inventory.
D) Fires eat through shielding. Gilmore FOUR:
High Burnup Fuel Fact Sheet Posted on January 8, 2014 by Donna Gilmore High Burnup Nuclear Fuel Pushing the Safety Envelope by Marvin Resnikoff 1 and Donna Gilmore 2 January 2014 https://sanonofresafety.org/2014/01/08/high-burnup-fuel-fact-sheet-2/ Donna Gilmore is the founder of San Onofre Safety, an organization that provides factual government and scientific information on the serious safety issues found at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in Southern California. Since the closure of the nuclear reactors, the focus of the organization has turned from operational safety issues to issues of nuclear spent fuel storage at San Onofre and other California and U.S. locations. The San Onofre Safety website (sanonofresafety.org) is used around the world by journalists, engineers, elected officials, regulators and the general public for creditable sourced information on nuclear safety issues. Gilmore was part of local efforts to educate the public on the San Onofre steam generator problems. The reactors are permanently shut down. However, the 1680 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste at the plant are still very active. Recent papers by Gilmore include: High Burnup Nuclear Fuel – Pushing the Safety Envelope (co‐authored with nuclear physicist Dr. Marvin Resnikoff), Diablo Canyon: Conditions for Stress Corrosion Cracking in Two Years, Reasons to Buy Thick Nuclear Waste Dry Storage Casks, and Myths About Nuclear Waste Storage. Gilmore has made presentations on nuclear waste storage issues at national, state and local venues, including the 2014 NRC Annual Spent Fuel Management Regulatory Conference, the 2015 California Democratic Convention (Environmental Caucus), the Malibu Democratic Club, the California Energy Commission, and California Coastal Commission, the Sierra Club and other NGO venues. Gilmore also educates federal, state and local regulators and elected officials and activists on critical nuclear waste storage issues. Gilmore has effectively advocated for improved nuclear waste storage safety evaluations in federal and state regulatory proceedings. She is an intervener in the CPUC $4.3 billon San Onofre Decommissioning proceeding, which may likely determine the future of nuclear waste storage at San Onofre. Gilmore has over 30 years experience in systems analysis and information technology project management including the design and implementation of major technology systems for the State of California and the management of a large engineering data center.
There are serious unanswered questions about long duration, high temperature fires and effect on
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particular concern with HBF, with large Cesium inventories and suspect fuel cladding.
E) Aging plants compound the risk. Alvarez TWO:
11 AUGUST 2016 Nuclear power plant? Or storage dump for hot radioactive waste? Robert Alvarez A senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Robert Alvarez served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department's secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. During this tenure, he led teams in North Korea to establish control of nuclear weapons materials. He also coordinated the Energy Department's nuclear material strategic planning and established the department's first asset management program. Before joining the Energy Department, Alvarez served for five years as a senior investigator for the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. John Glenn, and as one of the Senate’s primary staff experts on the US nuclear weapons program. In 1975, Alvarez helped found and direct the Environmental Policy Institute, a respected national public interest organization. He also helped organize a successful lawsuit on behalf of the family of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear worker and active union member who was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1974. Alvarez has published articles in Science, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Technology Review, and The Washington Post. He has been featured in television programs such as NOVA and 60 Minutes. thebulletin.org/nuclear-power-plant-or-storage-dump-hot-radioactive-waste9775#.V63firJAd-8.twitter
The uncertainties of storing a mix of high- and low-burnup spent fuel
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leakage from the SFPs spent fuel pools and reactor refueling cavities.”
F) Regulators are incompetent. Gottfried ’06:
Climate Change and Nuclear Power Author(s): Kurt Gottfried Source: Social Research , Vol. 73, No. 3, Politics and Science: How Their Interplay Results in Public Policy (FALL 2006), pp. 1011-1024 Published by: The New School Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971865 Accessed: 14-08-2016 00:44 UTC
In the last two decades the American nuclear power industry has learned how to operate
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NRC has not implemented a quarter of its "high priority lessons learned."
G) Regulators fail specifically with high burn-up fuel: 1) You literally can’t study the insides of casks with high burnup fuel since they’re too hot. 2) Lack of studies on safe management – regulation CPs are at best a guess. 3) Regulators don’t address known risks. Alvarez THREE:
11 AUGUST 2016 Nuclear power plant? Or storage dump for hot radioactive waste? Robert Alvarez A senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Robert Alvarez served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department's secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. During this tenure, he led teams in North Korea to establish control of nuclear weapons materials. He also coordinated the Energy Department's nuclear material strategic planning and established the department's first asset management program. Before joining the Energy Department, Alvarez served for five years as a senior investigator for the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. John Glenn, and as one of the Senate’s primary staff experts on the US nuclear weapons program. In 1975, Alvarez helped found and direct the Environmental Policy Institute, a respected national public interest organization. He also helped organize a successful lawsuit on behalf of the family of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear worker and active union member who was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1974. Alvarez has published articles in Science, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Technology Review, and The Washington Post. He has been featured in television programs such as NOVA and 60 Minutes. thebulletin.org/nuclear-power-plant-or-storage-dump-hot-radioactive-waste9775#.V63firJAd-8.twitter
In addition to generating electricity, US nuclear power plants are now major radioactive waste
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large, unfunded radioactive waste “balloon mortgage” payments in the future.
Impact
Spent fuel is one of the most hazardous substances on Earth. Alvarez FOUR:
11 AUGUST 2016 Nuclear power plant? Or storage dump for hot radioactive waste? Robert Alvarez A senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Robert Alvarez served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department's secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. During this tenure, he led teams in North Korea to establish control of nuclear weapons materials. He also coordinated the Energy Department's nuclear material strategic planning and established the department's first asset management program. Before joining the Energy Department, Alvarez served for five years as a senior investigator for the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. John Glenn, and as one of the Senate’s primary staff experts on the US nuclear weapons program. In 1975, Alvarez helped found and direct the Environmental Policy Institute, a respected national public interest organization. He also helped organize a successful lawsuit on behalf of the family of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear worker and active union member who was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1974. Alvarez has published articles in Science, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Technology Review, and The Washington Post. He has been featured in television programs such as NOVA and 60 Minutes. thebulletin.org/nuclear-power-plant-or-storage-dump-hot-radioactive-waste9775#.V63firJAd-8.twitter
In addition to generating electricity, US nuclear power plants are now major radioactive waste management operations, storing concentrations of radioactivity that dwarf those generated by the country's nuclear weapons program. Because the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository remains in limbo, and other permanent storage plans are in their infancy, these wastes are likely to remain in interim storage at commercial reactor sites for the indefinite future. This reality raises one issue of particular concern—how to store the high-burnup nuclear fuel used by most US utilities. An Energy Department expert panel has raised questions that suggest neither government regulators nor the utilities operating commercial nuclear power plants understand the potential impact of used high-burnup fuel on storage and transport of used nuclear fuel, and, ultimately, on the cost of nuclear waste management. Spent nuclear power fuel accumulated over the past 50 years is bound up in more than 241,000 long rectangular assemblies containing tens of millions of fuel rods. The rods, in turn, contain trillions of small, irradiated uranium pellets. After bombardment with neutrons in the reactor core, about 5 to 6 percent of the pellets are converted to a myriad of radioactive elements with half-lives ranging from seconds to millions of years. Standing within a meter of a typical spent nuclear fuel assembly guarantees a lethal radiation dose in minutes. Heat from the radioactive decay in spent nuclear fuel is also a principal safety concern. Several hours after a full reactor core is offloaded, it can initially give off enough heat from radioactive decay to match the energy capacity of a steel mill furnace. This is hot enough to melt and ignite the fuel’s reactive zirconium cladding and destabilize a geological disposal site it is placed in. By 100 years, decay heat and radioactivity drop substantially but still remain dangerous. For these reasons, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) informed the Congress in 2013 that spent nuclear fuel is “considered one of the most hazardous substances on Earth.” US commercial nuclear power plants use uranium fuel that has had the percentage of its key fissionable isotope—uranium 235—increased, or enriched, from what is found in most natural uranium ore deposits. In the early decades of commercial operation, the level of enrichment allowed US nuclear power plants to operate for approximately 12 months between refueling.
Nuclear accidents A) pollute half the globe and B) risk extinction. Lendman 11:
Stephen Lendman. The People’s Voice: News and Viewpoints. “Nuclear meltdown in Japan,” March 13th, 2011. http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/03/13/nuclear-meltdown-in-japan Stephen Lendman was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. In 1956, he received a BA from Harvard University. Two years of US Army service followed, then an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960. After working seven years as a marketing research analyst, he joined the Lendman Group family business in 1967. He remained there until retiring at year end 1999. Writing on major world and national issues began in summer 2005. In early 2007, radio hosting followed. Lendman now hosts the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network three times weekly. Distinguished guests are featured. Listen live or achived. Major world and national issues are discussed. Lendman is a 2008 Project Censored winner and 2011 Mexican Journalists Club international journalism award recipient.
For years, Helen Caldicott warned it's coming. In her 1978 book, "
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under control, but coverup and denial concealed full details until much later.
