Feds seek borehole test for hot nuke waste burial
LUBBOCK, Texas – The federal government plans to spend $80 million assessing whether its hottest nuclear waste can be stored in 3-mile-deep holes, a project that could provide an alternative strategy to a Nevada repository plan that was halted in 2010.
The five-year borehole project was tentatively slated to start later this year on state-owned land in rural North Dakota, but it has been met with opposition from state and local leaders who want more time to review whether the plan poses any public danger.
“It should be a statewide decision,” said Jeff Zent, spokesman for North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple, adding that a resolution from state legislators is a possibility.
The Department of Energy wants to conduct its work just south of the Canadian border on 20 acres near Rugby, North Dakota – in part because it’s in a rural area not prone to earthquakes – but is prepared to look elsewhere if a deal can’t be reached. Some sites in West Texas and New Mexico have expressed interest in becoming interim sites for above-ground nuclear waste storage, but it’s not clear if they would be considered for borehole technology.
Obama urges Putin to end airstrikes in Syria’s war
President Barack Obama spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for an end to airstrikes against moderate opposition forces in Syria as a security conference in Munich discussed efforts to implement a truce in that country’s five-year civil war.
Obama, in Saturday’s phone call, stressed the need for quick humanitarian access to besieged areas and a nationwide cessation of hostilities, the White House said in a statement released Sunday. Obama emphasized the importance of “Russia playing a constructive role by ceasing its air campaign against moderate opposition forces,” according to the statement.
The Kremlin said earlier in an e-mailed statement that Putin emphasized the importance of a united anti-terror front and close contacts between Russian and U.S. defense forces. The leaders agreed on strengthening diplomatic cooperation, according to the e-mail.
Great Plains’ wind energy to light up cities far away
There’s enough untapped wind howling across the vast plains of Oklahoma and Kansas to generate more electricity than a dozen nuclear power plants. What’s missing are transmission lines to ship it from spinning turbines to faraway homes and businesses.
That’s why Clean Line Energy Partners plans to spend $9 billion on power transmission across the Great Plains, Midwest and the Southwest, including a 720-mile proposal awaiting approval from the Energy Department. It would be one of the longest high-voltage direct current lines built in a generation, and is among at least 11 proposed projects that may open up vast expanses for wind and solar farms with more than 26 gigawatts of capacity.
Renewable energy advocates say long-distance transmission will tap the wind and solar potential of the Great Plains and Sun Belt the way pipelines opened up once-inaccessible oil fields in Alaska and Siberia. These projects are seen as essential to helping states comply with President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which requires them to reduce emissions from power plants, and will help the U.S. meet its goals of getting 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
Associated Press & Washington Post
