NucNews - July 3, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR Fusion Power, Elusive and Alluring July 3, 2005 NY TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/03/opinion/03sun2.html?pagewanted=print A standing joke among scientists is that fusion power - the holy grail of those seeking a boundless supply of energy to supplant fossil fuels - is always decades away. That has been the guesstimate for half a century, and it remained the guesstimate last week when an international consortium announced that it had finally resolved an internal struggle over where to site an experimental nuclear fusion reactor. It will be in southern France, with Japan receiving some consolation-prize benefits. According to a timeline issued by the consortium, this new reactor could put the world on a path toward a commercial fusion reactor by 2050. Or maybe not. The task is so daunting that fusion power may never prove practical. Even so, it is a dream worth pursuing in a world that may be desperate for new energy sources as fossil fuel supplies dwindle and global warming rises. Fusion reactors, which smash atomic nuclei together instead of splitting them, as a conventional nuclear reactor does, are undeniably alluring. They would produce no greenhouse gases, would rely on abundant sources of fuel and would be safer than current nuclear reactors, and their radioactive waste would be easier to handle. But fusion - the nuclear reaction that powers the sun and the awesome blast of the hydrogen bomb - has proved devilishly difficult to harness for peaceful purposes. The experimental reactor is projected to take eight years to build and will play host to another 20 years of experiments at a total cost of $10 billion to $15 billion. The United States, a minority partner, is expected to pay some $1.1 billion toward construction. That seems a reasonable contribution toward a project that the Energy Department has ranked at the top of its priority list. Now a battle is brewing in Washington over how to finance the American contribution. Some in Congress want the department to find additional funding for the international project without gouging domestic fusion research, or else drop out of the collaboration entirely. Others believe that the collaboration should take precedence and domestic research should be cut and fitted around it. That seems the more reasonable approach. Fusion is at least half a century away from yielding practical power. It is in no position to claim a disproportionate slice of today's Energy Department budget. -------- accidents and safety Report says Sellafield leak could happen again BNFL 'complacency' blamed for major nuclear contamination Oliver Morgan, industrial editor Sunday July 3, 2005 The UK Observer http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1519761,00.html A damning internal report into a major leak of radioactive liquid at British Nuclear Fuels' Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield has found that management was complacent and that the incident was not detected for eight months. The report finds that there was 'operational complacency' at the plant, despite previous incidents, and says that, even if its 18 recommendations are comprehensively implemented, there remains a 'significant chance of further failures occurring'. The 34-page report, commissioned by Barry Snelson, managing director of Sellafield operations for BNFL subsidiary British Nuclear Group, will give ammunition to people in Whitehall who believe that BNFL should be broken up. Last week, BNFL confirmed it was to sell its Westinghouse reactor design business, and senior government officials believe BNG, BNFL's decommissioning and operations business, is incapable of winning work on UK sites in future without a partner or new owner. In April, ownership and control of Sellafield and more than 20 other sites around the UK passed to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which has responsibility for contracting out the work to dismantle them and for the £48bn liability they represent. Thorp has been shut down since detection of the leak, and senior figures at the NDA believe it should not reopen. The report examines events leading up to the leak of 83,000 litres of radioactive material, including plutonium and uranium, into an internal compartment. It finds the leak started in July 2004, and that, despite indications that there were discrepancies in the amount of material recorded going through the system, BNFL's safeguards department did not sent an email on the matter until 17 March this year. It then took almost a month before operations management were told, on 15 April. The report concludes that a culture of 'operational complacency' grew up because Thorp is a relatively new plant (it opened on 1994). It states: 'The reaction of all staff interviewed ... was that they believed that material losses on this scale could not conceivably be due to a leak; there had been an error in the paperwork.' It goes on to say that the 'new plant culture pervades all levels within the ... organisation' and that it 'has continued despite previous experience that leaks can and do happen.' Jean McSorley of Greenpeace said: 'The report shows that BNFL is not competent to run this plant.' There was no comment from BNFLlast night. ---- Uranium missing at UK site Search is ordered after deadly samples are found at atomic weapons facility Mark Gould and Robin McKie Sunday July 3, 2005 The Observer http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1520165,00.html Nuclear inspectors have ordered the UK's atomic bomb-making establishment at Aldermaston to carry out an urgent search of all its premises after it was discovered that samples of highly dangerous uranium had gone missing. The revelation comes in a highly critical safety report by the government's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate following recent visits to the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment. In addition to the uranium complaint, the establishment was criticised for weakness in the quality of its procedures. Aldermaston, which occupies a 750-acre site in west Berkshire, has been the home of Britain's nuclear weapons industry for more than 50 years. Warheads using highly radioactive and highly unstable plutonium and uranium were designed and built there. The establishment has a £5.3 billion government contract that guarantees its life for another 25 years. It is owned by the Ministry of Defence and run by a government contractor and a consortium of three companies: British Nuclear Fuels, US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin, and facilities management company Serco. The NII report, published this week, reveals the 'discovery of radioactive material not previously accounted for, although safely controlled within the facilities. In the past this non-fissile material was not classified as accountable material.' Inspectors have insisted that Aldermaston staff search its facilities to identify any further unaccounted for material. Last night a spokesman for the establishment told The Observer that the number of unaccounted for samples was in 'the low tens' and related to highly toxic but no longer radioactive depleted uranium. He added the survey would be completed within the next three months, but so far no further unaccounted for nuclear materials had been found. NII inspectors warned Aldermaston that 'further instances of the discovery of similar materials will not be viewed sympathetically', and added they were concerned about 'weaknesses' in complying with nuclear licence conditions for record keeping and basic measures such as displaying proper safety warning notices. Their report also states the sites need modernisation to comply with regulatory requirements and talks of 'weaknesses' at corporate level in identifying underlying causes of potential problems - so called 'root cause analysis'. The independent nuclear consultant, John Large, said the report underlines 'sloppy, disorganised management'. 'This is Aldermaston we are talking about. It handles dangerous, esoteric materials like plutonium and uranium. To say there are weaknesses in root cause analysis goes to the fundamentals of the way this place is managed by three private companies; they find a problem and the management systems don't get to the bottom of the cause.' Di McDonald, from anti-nuclear campaigners Nuclear Information Service, said: 'It's worrying that a military establishment can "lose" radioactive material, but significant that the NII made this public in its report. However, the inspectors don't have any powers over the military at the end of the day.' Aldermaston says it has noted the concerns 'and will be seeking to refine our process in this area'. -------- iran Chirac, Putin, Schroeder to discuss Iran nuclear programme, global security at summit SVETLOGORSK, Russia (AFP) Jul 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050703094040.uqnuoqol.html Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss Iran's nuclear programme and international security with French President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder when they meet Sunday in Russia's Baltic Sea resort of Svetlogorsk, officials said. "A discussion on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, particularly as far as the Iranian nuclear programme is concerned, is expected in Kaliningrad," the region where the summit is being held, a Kremlin official said on condition of anonymity. Despite US objections, Russia is building a nuclear reactor in Iran for 800 million dollars (615 million euros), which is expected to be operational by 2006, but has agreed to take back spent nuclear fuel rods from Iran to prevent their use in a potential weapons programme. The situation in Iraq and other global "hotspots," as well as reform of the United Nations will also be on the agenda for Putin, Chirac and Schroeder, the Kremlin official said. France and Russia are permanent members of the UN Security Council, while Germany is campaigning for a seat. The three leaders will meet again at the G8 summit in Scotland on July 6-8 and Chirac said last week he would take the opportunity in Svetlogorsk to remind Putin to be more active in combatting global warming and providing aid to the third world -- two key G8 goals. The venue for the summit, Svetlogorsk, formerly known as Rauschen, is about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the city of Kaliningrad, which is celebrating its 750th anniversary this year. The Kaliningrad region, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, was known as Koenigsburg before the Soviet Union annexed it in 1945 and chased out the ethnic German population. The Polish and Lithuanian presidents, Alexander Kwasniewski and Valdas Adamkus, said earlier they were "vexed" at not being invited to the meeting. Among other items on the agenda, Chirac, Putin and Schroeder will discuss the future of the Kaliningrad region and what role it could play in relations between Russia and the European Union. The exclave is now surrounded by EU territory after Poland and Lithuania joined the EU in 2004. Putin and Schroeder are expected to attend a dedication ceremony on Sunday afternoon where the University of Kaliningrad will officially become Immanuel Kant University, named after the 18th century German philosopher. The two leaders will also lay a wreath at the tomb of Kant, the city's most famous son. Putin is also set to meet Russian business leaders, including Gazprom head Aleksei Miller and Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov, later Sunday. Gazprom and Lukoil are both active in Kaliningrad, which offers special tax breaks to investors. ---- Iran warns EU ahead of nuclear talks TEHRAN (AFP) Jul 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050703120029.v3l9np3l.html Iran warned the European Union Sunday that any proposal on the future of its nuclear activities will be rejected if it does not enshrine the Islamic republic's "right" to sensitive technology. Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Iran to completely abandon its enrichment programme, and have promised to come up with the outlines of a long-term accord by the end of July. "We hope this proposal will have our right to use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. "Otherwise we will not accept such a plan." Enrichment can produce weapons-grade uranium, but Iran claims it only wants to make atomic fuel for energy purposes and argues it has a "right" to do so as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran -- widely suspected of seeking to develop nuclear arms -- has frozen its fuel cycle work and is negotiating with the Europeans, keen to offer Tehran trade and other incentives in return for pledges to curb its nuclear projects. According to European diplomats close to the talks, the forthcoming EU-3 proposal will not satisfy Iranian demands to resume fuel cycle work and a fresh war of words can be expected. However, if Iran does choose to resume enrichment, diplomats say it is all but certain of being hauled before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. In a related development, officials also moved Sunday to deny speculation that Iran's top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani had quit in the wake of presidential polls that saw hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad elected. Rowhani is seen as being close to defeated moderate conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and had also spoken out against Ahmadinejad in the run-up to the election. In a statement carried on state television, Iran's Supreme National Security Council said reports that Rowhani had quit were "untrue". -------- israel Israeli nuclear whistleblower appeals for lifting of travel ban JERUSALEM (AFP) Jul 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050703081314.vwpa2d5p.html Israel's nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu submitted an appeal Sunday against a set of restrictions that have prevented him from leaving the country since his release last year. "I submitted a petition to the Supreme Court to annul these restrictions which have absolutely no justification," Vanunu told AFP. "The case will be examined by court in the next few weeks," he added. The former nuclear technician was released from prison in April last year at the end of an 18-year sentence for lifting the lid on the inner workings of the Dimona plant to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. However he was immediately hit with an order, renewable every 12 months, preventing him from travelling abroad and also from speaking to foreign journalists without prior authorisation. Interior Minister Ophir Pines decided to renew the order three months ago, saying there were fears that Vanunu still had more sensitive information to divulge. Vanunu has spoken of his desire to start a new life outside Israel and says he has applied for asylum in a string of Western countries but that his applications have been turned down. While Vanunu became something of an international cause celebre during his time in prison, he is still widely reviled in Israel for converting to Christianity shortly before he was kidnapped while in Italy and subsequently jailed in 1986 after being covertly shipped back to the Jewish state. -------- japan Japanese nuclear reactor shuts down, no radioactive leaks TOKYO (AFP) Jul 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050703114802.n3st3h5w.html A Japanese nuclear reactor shut down automatically due to turbine trouble on Sunday but there were no radioactive leaks, the reactor's operator said. The reactor in Niigata, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Tokyo, was about to undergo a regular maintenance check late Sunday when it shut down, said a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power. Tokyo Electric Power, the world's largest private power company, operates a total of 17 nuclear reactors. -------- russia Russians Test Missile for China Moscow hopes to export more weapons to Beijing By Charles R. Smith Special to The Epoch Times Jul 03, 2005 http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-7-1/29971.html Russian missile makers have recently tested a new weapon they hope to sell to China. The newly developed Russian missile is designed to attack naval targets, and well suited for attacks against U.S. carriers. According to Aviation Week and Space Technology, flight testing is underway on a variant of Russia's Raduga Kh-59M (NATO AS-18 Kazoo) anti-ship missile. Flight trials of the modified Kh-59 began in 2004, using a SU-30MK2 aircraft already sold to Beijing. The Chinese naval (PLAN) air arm began taking delivery of the first batch of 24 SU-30MK2s strike-fighters in mid-2004. The newly modified missile has been fitted with an active radar seeker, advanced guidance systems and a special computer interface allowing it to use targeting data from the Su-30MK2 fighter. The modified Kh-59 missile is fitted with a Saturn 36MT turbojet engine and its range has been extended to 186 miles or 288 KM. Missile Story "The Raduga Kh-59MK is a serious story that is just beginning," stated Richard Fisher, Vice President, International Assessment and Strategy Center. "It is significant that it is being tested on the prototype of the Chinese version of the Su-30, a strong indication that this 288 KM range active-guided anti-ship missile will soon be joining PLA Naval Air Force Su-30MKK2 units," stated Fisher. "It was originally pitched as the weapon to accompany the Su-30MKK3, which features a new radar from a bureau in competition with the normal Sukhoi radar provider. The Su-30MKK3 program died a quiet death last year, according to Russian sources with vested interests in its demise. The Kh-59MK, however, will survive, and Raduga officials say it will be ready for export in 2006," noted Fisher. PLAN forces are very familiar with Russian missiles. China has already purchased the Zvezda Kh-31A (AS-17 Krypton) air-launched anti-ship missile from Moscow. The ramjet powered Kh-31 can reach a top speed of Mach 2.8. The PLAN is currently working on manufacturing the Kh-31 and has already introduced a modified version, the KH-31P, with a range in excess of 100 miles. The PLAN has acquired several Russian Sovremenniy destroyers armed with the latest versions of the Raduga 3M80 Moskit anti-ship missile (NATO SS-N-22 Sunburn). The Moskit can cruise at 3 times the speed of sound and can be armed with a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead. Each PLAN Sovremenniy class destroyer is armed with eight Sunburn missiles. The addition of the subsonic Kh-59 to the PLAN aviation inventory will give it deadly combination of weapons that can pin down naval targets at long range and then swiftly attack them from a variety of directions. The build up of Chinese naval attack forces has not escaped notice in the west. Chinese Naval Build-up "This adds yet another layer to China's building anti-carrier forces, which will soon include 8 Russian NPO-Machinostroyenia electro-optical and radar satellites; 12 Kilo submarines- 8 armed with 220km range CLUB anti-ship missiles; Xian JH-7A fighter-bombers armed with Russian Kh-31 anti-ship missiles; and according to late reports, an eventual total of 6 Sovremenniy class missile destroyers," said Fisher. In addition, Russia and China have reached an agreement covering the purchase of 100 Klimov RD-93 engines for the Chengdu FC-1 strike fighter jet. According to the Russian financial daily Kommersant, the deal reportedly bars re-export of the engines. The FC-1 is being developed by CAC-1, formerly Chengdu Aircraft Corp., with partial funding by Pakistan. The FC-1 draws its design lineage from the Super-7 fighter program, a cooperative development between Chengdu and then Grumman Corp. The agreement was signed in 1988, but fell apart after Beijing's violent reaction to the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. However, the FC-1 incorporates many features from the U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon design. The F-16 features appeared during the 1990s after Pakistan transferred a single F-16A fighter to China in exchange for DF-11 missile technology. Russia has also contributed to the FC-1 project. The FC-1 reportedly incorporated several features of the now defunct MiG-33 lightweight fighter project rejected by the Russian Air Force. The Russian MiG design bureau dedicated several teams of engineers to the Chinese fighter after the fall of the Soviet Union. A single modified MiG-29 engine, the Klimov RD-33, dubbed the RD-93, powers the FC-1. New Jet Fighter for Beijing or Islamabad? "There appears to be some confusion about the ultimate destination of the 100 Klimov RD-93 engines for the Chengdu FC-1 fighters," stated Richard Fisher. "Most sources note China wants to sell them to Pakistan, which has a stated requirement for 150, but the Russians in several articles say they will not allow flat resale of the engines. The reported reason is opposition by India, which buys much more Russian weapons than Pakistan," noted Fisher. "Chengdu, however, has tried hard to sell the FC-1 as the successor to the PLA's Chengdu J-7 fighters, but there have been no solid reports that this indeed will happen. The third alternative possibility is that China will 'produce' its own version of the RD-93 in such a way as to absolve the Russians of any guilt from its sale to Pakistan. This story is not over," said Fisher. The continuing arms sales by Moscow are a growing concern to Washington and its Asian allies. The Chinese arms build up is clearly aimed at challenging the U.S. armed forces in Asia and in particular the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. However, future weapons purchases remain unclear because of Beijing's desire to acquire more advanced armament from the west. For example, the pending decision by the European Union to sell arms to China may very well be more damaging to world peace than the current weapons deliveries from Moscow. "The Russians badly need the hard currency that their deteriorating arms industry can provide, but do not help their own defense posture on their eastern flank by selling them to the Chinese," stated John Shaw, former deputy under secretary for international technology security in the George W. Bush Defense Department. "Look for lots of sales of last generation equipment, but recognize that others can provide upgrades that are better than the state of the art in Russia-for a fat fee," concluded Shaw. -------- space Batteries may be for space weapons, experts say By Christopher Smith Associated Press writer Sunday, July 3, 2005 http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2005/07/03/news_localstate/news_local_state.9.txt BOISE -- Defense analysts say the long-lasting, plutonium-powered batteries the Department of Energy wants to produce at a new $300 million facility in Idaho could eventually wind up in everything from space-based satellite killers to battlefield laptop computers. That's contrary to how the agency says the batteries will be used. But because of the program's classified status, the Bush administration won't say specifically what types of national security programs the batteries are needed for, only what applications they won't be used in: nuclear weapons, non-nuclear weapons, missile defense systems and military satellites. "The primary driver for us to start production is for national security requirements," said Tim Frazier, director of the energy department's radioisotope power systems program in Washington, D.C. "As to what those national security applications are, I would just prefer to say not in space." But military and space policy analysts say the radioisotope thermoelectric generators -- sometimes called "space batteries" -- to be made from new supplies of plutonium-238 produced at the Idaho National Laboratory are a key component to future warfare systems, both in the heavens and on earth. And since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, they argue there's no real distinction between national security and national defense. "You have to ask, what is national security that is not military?" said John Pike, the former director of space policy for the Federation of American Scientists who now heads the Virginia-based think tank GlobalSecurity.org. "Our government is perfectly capable of lying in the sense that if this is for an unacknowledged stealth satellite system, they could not acknowledge that's what they are doing." The White House is expected to soon release an updated version of the 1996 doctrine of U.S. military space policy which could relax some Clinton administration-era restrictions on research and budgeting for space weapons programs. And the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services committee is planning to hold hearings on weapons in space this summer. A Senate panel held similar hearings this spring. "Few could dispute that our military capability depends on space control," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. "We need to be investing in things that will allow us to continue to have that control and improve our capabilities." Currently, components of space batteries for peaceful applications such as NASA's mission to Pluto next year are produced at Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los Alamos, N.M., with final assembly in Idaho. The NASA batteries use plutonium-238 purchased from Russia, but that supply is considered unreliable and projected to be virtually depleted by 2010. The use of Russian-made plutonium-238 in national security applications is banned by international agreements. The plutonium-238 that is available for national security missions was last produced by the DOE in the 1980s in South Carolina and the remaining 55 pounds also is expected to be used up in five years. The Bush administration wants to spend up to $300 million to consolidate all plutonium-238 production, space battery assembly and testing in a new "Space and Security Power Systems Facility" at the DOE's remote desert compound in eastern Idaho to reduce security risks and avoid interstate transportation of the highly radioactive material. The facility would make 11 pounds of plutonium-238 a year for both national security and space exploration needs. Space batteries work by converting heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 -- the sister to plutonium-239 used in nuclear weapons -- into electricity. The batteries are considered the best power source for unmanned space vehicles, producing hundreds of watts of electricity for decades. The plutonium batteries aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, were still working at 80 percent capacity when it left the solar system in 2003. James Lewis, director of the Technology and Public Policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said plutonium batteries could also be important to the U.S. military, where high-speed computer networks relay data to ground troops. "It sounds silly, but when you have a very fast mobile force that is heavily dependent on electronic information, one of the military's biggest problems is how to get fresh batteries to the field," said Lewis. "If you found a way for this type of long-lasting battery to be small enough and safe enough for terrestrial use, you've solved a huge logistics problem." But sending batteries so potentially dangerous -- plutonium-238 is so radioactive even a speck is deadly -- into space or battle worries Peter Rickards. The Idaho podiatrist has rallied opposition to plans to consolidate plutonium-238 battery production in the state. "Our state politicians are acting like we won a prize with this clustering of a terrorist target in Idaho," said Rickards. "Our next step is to educate as many people as possible that this deadly threat is coming soon to everyone's backyard." ---- -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- idaho UNM supports Idaho lab’s work with plutonium Last Update: 07/03/2005 4:02:19 PM By: Associated Press http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=20205&cat=NMTOPSTORIES ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - University of New Mexico scientists are lending their expertise in nuclear energy generation in space to the Idaho National Laboratory. The Bush administration wants to restart production of plutonium-238 at the lab. Plutonium-238 is an energy source that has been used in nuclear batteries that power some spacecraft. UNM chemical and nuclear engineering professor Mohamed El-Genk says UNM will not play a direct role in the manufacture of plutonium 238. Instead, UNM will help look for safer and more effective ways to process and use the plutonium. El-Genk said he is working with the consortium to establish a center for space nuclear research at the Idaho lab. UNM is part of the Battelle Energy Alliance, led by nonprofit research giant Battelle Memorial Institute. The alliance won a $4.8 billion contract to manage the lab. -------- illinois Nuclear waste: 1 plant, 48 tons a year In an age of terrorism fears, no plan to dispose of society's most lethal toxin - Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times Sunday, July 3, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle, Page A - 3 http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/03/MNGTODGNEE1.DTL Morris , Ill. -- Along the headwaters of the Illinois River, engineers at the Dresden nuclear power station have erected two dozen steel and concrete silos that rise 20 feet above the Midwest plain. The gray structures are unremarkable except for what is loaded inside: Each contains roughly 13 tons of high-level nuclear waste that has been accumulating at the plant since the Eisenhower administration. With nowhere to go, the waste will most likely remain in place for decades. Dresden's reactors have produced one of the largest stockpiles -- 1,347 tons -- of civilian nuclear waste in the nation. With the plant churning out nearly 48 tons more waste each year, engineers are preparing to double the size of the outdoor storage pad this summer. The plant has the same problem as nearly all of the nation's 103 commercial reactors: They were never designed to store waste long-term and are now forced to deal with large quantities of spent uranium fuel rods that produce high levels of radiation. The problem reflects decades of miscalculations and missteps by the federal government, which promised at the dawn of the nuclear age to accept ownership of the waste. The plan to build a waste repository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert has faced so many political, legal and technical problems that it's impossible to project when -- or even if -- it will be built. As a result, the most lethal waste product of industrial society is being handled outside any federal policy and without any road map for how it will be managed in the future, according to industry officials, nuclear waste experts, lawyers and academicians. "It is a statement of reality," acknowledges Clay Sell, deputy secretary of energy. "Is it the right policy? No." The deep storage pools traditionally used to keep nuclear waste are filling up at most plants. Utilities have turned to outdoor storage in so- called dry casks as the de facto standard for dealing with waste. From California to South Carolina, utilities have loaded 700 of the steel and concrete casks, and scores of additional casks are scheduled to be filled this year. It is a stopgap measure that has averted a shutdown of the nuclear power industry. But it means leaving all of the roughly 50,000 tons of civilian nuclear waste spread across the nation for the next half-century or more. And storing the waste at power plant sites is creating significant economic, environmental, legal and security challenges -- including the potential for it to become a terrorist target. A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences found that the waste stored in pools was most vulnerable, but the outdoor casks also were potential targets. Such an attack could trigger an environmental catastrophe. "These are the ultimate dirty bombs," said Bob Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and a former Energy Department official. "Let's not pretend the way we are storing this waste is safe and secure in an age of terrorism." Utility executives and government officials sharply dispute such allegations, saying the plants have multiple layers of protection from any attack. Exelon Corp., the nation's largest nuclear utility, has erected heavy barriers and security towers at Dresden that are staffed round the clock by guards with automatic weapons. Though the nuclear industry has a good record for preventing radiation leaks during normal operations and dry casks are widely regarded as safe, many outside experts say their biggest fear is that future generations might lack the willpower and financial capability to safeguard tons of radioactive waste dispersed across the nation. Waste is already stored in casks at five shuttered nuclear plant sites. "We are muddling into an alternative plan by default," says Joe Egan, a longtime attorney for the nuclear industry who now represents Nevada in fighting Yucca Mountain. Nuclear waste also has created a legal mess. The Energy Department is facing more than four dozen lawsuits by the utility industry for its failure to take the waste. Damages could reach $56 billion over the next three decades, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a powerful trade group for nuclear utilities. At the Department of Energy, Sell argues that deep geologic storage of the waste at Yucca Mountain would be the best technical solution. He believes the project will eventually be completed. But the loss of a key court case last year and political resistance in Congress have put the dump at least 14 years behind schedule. Without a dump, utilities have few options short of shutting down their reactors and eliminating 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply that comes from nuclear power. And without a solution to the waste, the proposal by President Bush to start a new era of nuclear plant construction could go nowhere. Indefinite storage of nuclear waste at reactor sites is a bitter pill for many politicians, particularly those from environmentally fragile areas such as Lake Michigan, which is ringed by nuclear plants. "I want the waste off the shores of Lake Michigan," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., whose district includes two nuclear plants built on the lake's eastern boundary. "Ultimately, there is a safety problem." Nuclear waste at power plants will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. The fission of uranium inside reactors produces heat for electricity production. Afterward, the uranium fuel rods are far more radioactive than when they entered the reactor. To maximize storage capacity for the spent fuel rods, the nuclear industry devised a way to pack them more closely in the 50-foot-deep storage pools than initially planned. Critics say this kind of dense packing poses a safety risk, however. If terrorists were to puncture the pool wall and drain the water, the rods could ignite and disperse lethal amounts of radiation, according to a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences. Even with dense packing, the pools are running out of space. Twenty years ago, nuclear plants began removing the oldest fuel rods, which have radioactively decayed somewhat, and started storing them in huge outdoor storage casks like the ones at Dresden. Officials at Nuclear Regulatory Commission "anticipate that there will be an increase in the number of casks being loaded over the next few years," said E. William Brach, director of the commission's spent fuel project office. The logistics of nuclear waste ensure it will be around a long time. Even if the federal government gets a license to operate Yucca Mountain, the earliest it could accept waste shipments would be 2012. By that year, more than 60,000 tons of civilian nuclear waste would be spread across about three dozen states. It would take about 50 years to work down the backlog, according to Frank von Hippel, a nuclear expert at Princeton University and former White House national security adviser. That's because under current plans Yucca could process a maximum of 3,000 tons of waste annually, while nuclear power plants would be generating 2,000 tons of waste each year. That means a net reduction of just 1,000 tons each year, he said. "We have to assume that these casks will be around for a very long time," Von Hippel said. "It will take quite a while to move them, even if we had someplace to send them today." In any case, "on the day Yucca Mountain opens" it would be too small to handle all the waste, said Sell, the Energy Department official. There is no Plan B. Under federal law, the department can pursue only Yucca Mountain. Further complicating matters are the divided lines of authority between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department. The commission regulates waste at plant sites and authorizes dry cask storage but has no role in national policy for disposing of nuclear waste. That policy responsibility rests with the Energy Department, which has no voice or authority in the use of dry casks. In the vacuum, a private consortium is planning to build an above-ground storage site for hundreds of casks on an Indian reservation in Utah. Despite state opposition, it is getting approval from the nuclear commission. Meanwhile, utilities see dry cask storage as a cheap and safe, if not permanent, solution. Holtec International, one of the leading suppliers, says its casks can safely store waste for at least 100 years without leaking, according to company marketing manager Joy Russell. On the inside of the casks, the waste is so radioactive it would deliver a fatal dose in minutes, but the outside can be touched. "An individual can stand right next to the cask," Brach said. "There is a dose, but it is a minimal dose." Anti-nuclear groups, such as the Washington-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service and the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, say the casks should be better protected. In Germany, for example, the casks are inside fortified buildings. Government tests at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland showed that a shoulder-fired missile could penetrate a cask wall, causing some radioactive fuel to disperse. "We don't want this 10-pin bowling alley out in the open," said Dave Kraft, an anti-nuclear activist for more than 20 years. "Anybody with a shoulder-fired missile could hit one of these things from outside the plant." Acceptance of cask storage worries experts who say that in the future the casks will become a poor permanent solution. Kevin Crowley, a nuclear expert at the National Academy of Sciences who helped guide an investigation into the vulnerability of spent fuel storage, said the casks would become a risky legacy if left in place too long. "The major uncertainty," he said, "is in the confidence that future societies will continue to monitor and maintain such facilities."