Nuclear energy may be on the ropes post Fukushima’s explosive meltdowns, but 70 years of U.S. bomb and power plant waste doesn’t dissipate so easily. Despite federal promises to the power industry to dispose of their highly toxic, long-lived poisons — and despite utilities collecting more than $25 billion in fees for such from customers — more than 75,000 metric tons of high-level waste is still being stored at nuclear power plants and other sites across the country, including the South Texas Project nuclear complex in Matagorda County.
Not only is radioactive waste extremely difficult to contain, it’s also wildly unpopular. Go figure.
