Cost of turning it off

The cost of nuclear power must include the as-yet-uncalculated cost of dismantling a commercial power plant. New calculations show that hazardous levels of radioactive nickel will continue for as much as a million years after a power plant ceases to operate. Attention has been concentrated on waste disposal, overlooking disposal of the activation products such as steel and concrete structures. So far only eight small plants have been shut down, but these show considerable variation in the buildup of activation products depending on the number of megawatt-years the reactor was exposed. Commercial reactors with greater amounts of stainless steel and core structure can be expected to develop larger proportions of activation products. Three methods are proposed for shutting down reactors, all of which require removing radioactive wastes: (1) mothballing, which would make the total facility inoperable and would require expensive security measures; (2) entombment, which would remove all external parts to a federal respository or place them inside the vessel, would require minimal security; and (3) dismantling, the only safe method, would be dangerous and expensive, but would shift all radioactive materials to permanent and appropriate burial sites. 6 references