In February of 2015, the company announced plans to get a license for spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants which would allow it to accept high level waste. WCS said it expects to have the license by 2019.
Meanwhile, the federal government has amassed a fund of about $30 billion from utility ratepayers, corporate money and government subsidies purportedly intended to fund research into finding a way to dispose of more than 70,000 tons of commercial nuclear reactor waste currently stored on site at reactors across the country. The result is a potential boom for operators like WCS -- a radioactive version of the gold rush, funded by taxpayers.
The question is, what will be the fate of the water supply in America's increasingly aquifer-dependent farm belt?
PAUL DeRIENZO is a teacher and freelance writer. He won a grant from the George Polk Awards to write about his father's experiences as a nuclear engineer in the 1960s. A commentator on RT-America, co-author of the Ibogaine Story and former editor in chief of High Times, the pro-marijuana monthly, his public access TV show "Let Them Talk" is broadcast every Tuesday at 8 on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. He wrote this article exclusively for ThisCantBeHappening.net
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