On June 22, 2009, the Senate Republican Conference hosted a hearing on their idea of enabling the construction of 100 new nuclear power plants during the next 20 years. (Yes, I claim to be a liberal, but my view of the term includes the ability to liberally accept good ideas no matter which side of some kind of mythical aisle they come from. I am no "party animal".)

One of my long time heroes, Ted Rockwell, stole the show and conducted school on many topics during the session. Here is his response to Senator Alexander's question about safely storing used nuclear fuel. I love the crowd reaction at the end - he elicited a very nice smile from an audience member who seemed to be trying to keep a straight face.



Ted's response is one that you have read here on several occasions, and it is one that is gaining increasing traction with technically minded people like NNadir, the infamously grouchy chemist who posts great diaries on Daily Kos about the value of the by-products of atomic fission. That material is simply too valuable to bury it underground. It is a terrible waste of money to spend billions to do something that people in the future will want to pay additional billions to undo.