Nuclear Waste in Stockton? It Could Happen if Fresno Power Plant Idea Pans Out

January 5, 2009 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Alex Breitler The Record,
Stockton, Calif.

Nuclear waste could be shipped through Stockton if a group of
Fresno-area businessmen succeeds in its plan to build the state's
first nuclear plant in more than two decades.

Don't expect to see cooling towers rise above the farms west of
Fresno anytime soon.

The state forbids construction of new nuclear plants until
there's a proven way to dispose of spent fuel, most of which is being
temporarily stored at plants across the country. A national disposal site
planned for southern Nevada has been delayed.

This doesn't deter John Hutson, head of the Fresno Nuclear Energy
Group. He wants the Fresno plant to ship its waste via railroad to
the Port of Stockton, where it would be loaded onto a barge and exported to
France for reprocessing.

Bringing the spent fuel through Stockton was news to some San
Joaquin County officials and environmental activists, who said they had not
heard of Hutson's group nor its plan.

"Are there railroad accidents ever? Yes. Are there ship accidents
ever? Yes. I don't want nuclear waste shipped through my town," said
John Morearty, a longtime Stockton activist.

Nuclear waste was hauled through San Joaquin County in the days
of the Mare Island naval base in Vallejo, said Ron Baldwin, director of the
county's Office of Emergency Services. Today, many other hazardous
materials are shipped through the region.

"Everyone is very concerned with radioactivity," Baldwin said.
"But from a practical point of view, the way they ship those things,
spent fuel isn't horribly dangerous."

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires spent fuel to be
shipped in containers or casks that contain the radioactivity and
heat.

These fuels no longer produce enough energy for a nuclear
reaction, but are "intensely radioactive and continue to generate heat for
thousands
of years," the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in 2005.

Among the accountability office's findings in that report was
that nuclear power plants have been inconsistent in accounting for their
spent fuel.

Port of Stockton Director Richard Aschieris said he hadn't
heard of the Fresno group nor its plans to use the port.

"We do handle hazardous materials," he said. "But I don't have
any personal knowledge of what it takes to ship (nuclear waste)."

Hutson said the Fresno group formed about three years ago to
consider a plant as one solution to high poverty levels in that city. The
plant would provide jobs, reduce utility rates and help curb related problems
such as domestic violence, he said. The city's treated wastewater would
serve its cooling towers.

"We thought that if nuclear is going to go in California, it
has to be a case where it puts back into the community more than it takes out," Hutson
said.

He argues that nuclear power will help California meet
greenhouse gas emission goals. The state's two operating nuclear plants provide a
significant amount of the state's energy from non-fossil fuel sources.

There is still the thorny issue of the moratorium. But Hutson
said he believes the political winds may shift in favor of lifting the ban
on new nuclear plants. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has hinted that he supports
nuclear power, contrary to the views of many environmental groups.

Two prior efforts to lift the ban on new nuclear power have
failed, and there are federal complications with sending nuclear waste
overseas, said David Weisman, outreach coordinator for the San Luis Obispo-based
Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility.

"We think the Fresno thing is a lot of hot air," he said.
Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or
[email protected].