Uppity Wisconsin

To the list of safety, environmental, and economic concerns about nuclear power, add another: Utilities do not have enough money set aside to decommission existing nuclear reactors when they are shut down, the Associated Press reports.

The nuclear reactors themselves become huge mountains of radioactive waste when they are shut down, and need to be disposed of.  But no storage site exists to accept the waste, so the reactor on the Mississippi at Genoa, WI, which stopped operating in 1987, is still there, awaiting decommissioning.

Point Beach has only about half of the estimated $684-million it will need for decommissioning, and the Kewaunee reactor is somewhat close to having enough money set aside if estimates of $359-million are correct, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

Help stop a current effort to open the door to more nuclear reactors in Wisconsin. Learn more and sign an online petition here.