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Trojan's cooling tower and reactor building no longer cast a long shadow near sunset at the remains of the Trojan Nuclear power plant. Lower left was the cooling tower. To the right was the reactor building. Bill Wagner / The Daily News

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Trojan decommissioning complete, but fuel rods remain

Monday, November 24, 2008 11:42 PM PST

By Tony Lystra

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Portland General Electric says it is largely finished decommissioning the former Trojan nuclear power plant bordering the Columbia River south of Rainier. Spokesman Steve Corson said the company finished tearing down Trojan’s “containment building,” which once housed the plant’s nuclear reactor, this fall.

“There are no plans to remove anything further,” Corson said.

The demolition, which involved smashing apart super-thick concrete walls, was one of the final steps in the decades-long process of removing buildings from the landmark plant after it shut down in 1993. The plant is the first large-scale commercial nuclear facility in the U.S. to be decommissioned, the company said.

All that remains of the nuclear facility, which began operating in 1976, are radioactive fuel rods, contained in concrete casks and guarded around the clock. Those, Corson said, will remain at the site until the federal Yucca Mountain radioactive storage facility opens in Nevada.

Federal regulators have not yet signed off on the long-delayed construction of the Nevada storage facility. The last of the fuel rod assemblies is scheduled to ship to Yucca Mountain in 2030, Corson said.

Meanwhile, it’s unclear how the 634-acre Trojan site will be used, he said.

“That is an open question,” he said. “We really have not made any decisions and don’t have any specific plans in place.”

Also an open question is the future of nuclear power in the U.S. and the Northwest, a hot topic during this year’s presidential campaign.

Opening another nuclear facility in the region seems unlikely during the next two decades, Corson said. In 1980, Oregon voters made it illegal to build a nuclear plant without voter approval and without a proper disposal facility for nuclear waste.

“We’re not going to be proposing a nuclear portfolio that we wouldn’t be legally allowed to build,” Corson said.

Still, he said, looking beyond the next two decades, “We’re going to have to need every tool in the toolbox,” he said.

PGE imploded Trojan’s 499-foot-tall cooling tower in 2006. Last year, the company demolished the so-called “power block,” which had contained the plant’s control room, electricity generating turbine and fuel storage areas.

The containment building, destroyed this fall, had held Trojan’s reactor, which has been buried at the Hanford nuclear repository in Eastern Washington.

CRfisherman wrote on Nov 25, 2008 8:12 AM:

" Someday people will wish that Trojan had been overhauled and kept online. Nuclear power is a pretty clean alternative to coal and natural gas power production once a disposal site for the spent fuel is ready. There are numerous nuclear power generating facilites all over the world now and I would have to argue that "safety" shouldn't be a question mark of these things anymore, they have proven themselves. "

mole wrote on Nov 25, 2008 9:03 AM:

" the good old "CONSERVATIVE WAY" BURY IT!! OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND!!!! no such thing as clean nuclear power..WHAT ARE THOSE RODS MADE OF ANYWAY ???? "

Longview 88 wrote on Nov 25, 2008 9:52 AM:

" What is going to happen to all of the decommissioned Trojan Nuclear Plant Warning sirens that are still standing at many locations in our area? "

grams wrote on Nov 25, 2008 10:10 AM:

" CRfisherman
I haven't made up my mind yet about nuclear power but I do know one thing, If we get another one I hope it too is not built on top of a geologic fault. Burying the rods in deep underground caverns might be the best worst choice for now, but not in this area which is so geologically unsound due to its 65 million year old make up of uplift and volcanism. Since we usually live for less than a century, we often forget the legacy , or the problems, we may bequeath to our decendants. When it comes to the capriciousness of Mother Nature and our regional make up I would much rather see us use the geo-thermal abundance that goes along with our geology.We do still have a choice. I hope we make the right one. "

DUH wrote on Nov 25, 2008 10:41 AM:

" Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in spent fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other living beings for hundreds of thousands of years. Other radioisotopes will remain hazardous for millions of years. Thus, these wastes must be shielded for centuries and isolated from the living environment for hundreds of millennia. Do we have proven technology that will shield humanity or any living creatures for anywhere near that long? No. "

WsuCoug wrote on Nov 25, 2008 10:54 AM:

" The problem with nuclear waste in America is that we cannot reprocess our fuel rods. When the "spent" rods are removed from a reactor they have burned through about 5% of their fuel, but because of laws prohibiting reprocessing it is all sent to storage. If we were allowed to reprocess the rods we could recycle the majority of the rod and be left with about one cup of waste that can be easily store via vitrification. "

cheney119 wrote on Nov 25, 2008 11:39 AM:

" I served in the Trident Submarine Fleet and nuclear power is very safe there, but we had an unlimited and classified budget. It's also hard to call a Trident Submarine safe when we had enough nuclear warheads to blow up a good portion of every city in Russia, that's dangerous. But how safe are the Russian submarines rusting away up in Murmansk? Remember why Trojan was shutdown? Wasn't it shutdown because there was fraud in the construction, (no doubt the fraud from secret liberals in the construction business, right TDN Bad Boy) and repairing would be too expensive given the life left in the reactor. I have the same policy as President Elect Obama, do it right, work out all those pesky details and I'm all for nuclear power, but the devil is in the details and in the black hearts of all us liberals. By the way the French do make much of their power with nuclear reactors, but they dump their nuclear waste in the North Sea, makes Yuca Mountain look pretty good, doesn't it. "

Cowlitz1 wrote on Nov 25, 2008 12:01 PM:

" Darn that Harry Reid for not wanting the Nevada Test Site, home to over 900 nuclear tests, a low-level nuclear waste facility and Yucca mountain in his state. Obviously, he should completely disregard the will of his constituents and push this through. Oh, that's not how a representative democracy works? "

Ella Mentry wrote on Nov 25, 2008 12:18 PM:

" I'm more concerned that they have minimum wage (or very slightly above) workers doing the "guarding." One guy I know graduated from mall security to guarding radioactive fuel rods. No offense to these employees, but come on... "

nexus wrote on Nov 25, 2008 12:43 PM:

" I MISS THE TOWER "

skeezix wrote on Nov 25, 2008 12:49 PM:

" Given that TDNBB has stated on numerous occasions that people who disagree with him are liberals and never come to the table with solutions, I would like to propose the following solution. Take all of the spent fuel rods, and store them in TDNBB's shed out back. I'm sure he would be happy to have them lest he be seen as a liberal.....oh the humanity... "

cheney119 wrote on Nov 25, 2008 12:54 PM:

" http://www.mcsuk.org/mcsaction/pollution/radioactive+waste is one site but Europe has big problems with nuclear waste sites. I* "

cheney119 wrote on Nov 25, 2008 1:06 PM:

" http://www.mcsuk.org/mcsaction/pollution/radioactive+waste is one site but there is lots of documentation of European and French nuclear waste problem sites and practices. I'd ask you where you get your information, but you never include any, just crazy right wing talking points that you hear on Rush Limbaugh. I don't even know what you're rant about half the time in your posts. You don't appear to know anything about nuclear power, just that republicans are in favor of it, oh and liberals are bad that seems to be a theme in all your posts. Nuclear power is safe in the Navy but we know on a submarine any screw up would kill 125 men, the whole crew is qualified on the darned reactor. I don't trust people that are trying to cut corners to make profits like they did at Trojan, and they falsified welding x-rays at Trojan. Why was that? Profit and don't expect people to trust them so quickly this time. Why are you so quick to trust a completely discredited Bush adminstration on Yuca Mountain, I'd look out the window and check if they said the sky were blue. I guess that comes with the territory when you do nothing but lie for 8 straight years, I think their credibility and yours are at issue. "

Diesel wrote on Nov 25, 2008 1:34 PM:

" Re: Ella Mentry you information if 100% wrong. There are no personnel currently working at Trojan who were mall guards. Also ALL of the personnel who have worked there for the last 25 years have been required to be trained to NRC specifications. Any time you want to argue this please let me know as I am currently working there. We have had contract personnel who have handled vehicle and personnel traffic there but not had any dealings with the safe storage of the spent fuel. "

grams wrote on Nov 25, 2008 2:30 PM:

" TDN Bad Boy

Three Mile Island? Half life? Dynamic Geology? how would you think about things if you were recycled every 200 years? Would you want to deal with all the things we think are good for the now? My genetics will hopeflully be recycled longer than that and I think about that when I determine the best case ,worse case scenerios in regard to our energy sources, OF course we could always blow nuclear waste out into space. That would keep us on the ground for awhile, but then maybe one of my future gene pools would like to do outer space and what would that mean to them? There is the past, the now, and the future. If we can't deal with all of them then we should have no say at all. "

TDN Bad Boy wrote on Nov 25, 2008 2:58 PM:

" Cheney, just because you find it one an ultra-environmental website does not make it fact. Show me something from one non-partisan group that can support anything these eco-fanatics say. Show me one government -- Britian, Sweden, Denmark, etc. that back up these claims. All you can do is point to some far-out left-wing environmental group. Great evidence. "

skeezix wrote on Nov 25, 2008 5:24 PM:

" TDN Bad Boy, I agree with your statement that the technology is better now when compared to what was available 30 years ago. However, Cheney does have a valid point regarding the waste. Nobody has come up with a really good solution that everyone agrees with on how to deal with it. Cheney has at least provided something. You obviously disagree with it but what do you have to offer in it's place? When I see people use the terms Ultra-Environmental or eco-fanatic, I have to assume they are of the mind that the timber industry should be run full bore, clear cut everything, pave it and paint it green. That is the wrong approach to take. "

skeezix wrote on Nov 25, 2008 5:43 PM:

" Here are some other links:

http://oecdfactbook.wordpress.com/tag/france/
http://ims.eionet.europa.eu/Sectors_and_activities/energy/indicators/EN13,2007.04 "

Roudyruss wrote on Nov 25, 2008 6:56 PM:

" An artical printed by the BBC about a nuclear plant that releases nuclear waste into the sea http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cumbria/4614337.stm "

Diesel wrote on Nov 25, 2008 8:55 PM:

" cheney119 where did you get your information about the welding x-rays? You really should double and tripple check your so called facts before spouting off about something you clearly don't have a clue about. Trojan was shut down because of cracks in tubes that at the time mamanement said would be too costly to repair what with the projected low cost of hydro power. The x-rays were not done by Trojan personnel but rather but outside contractors and they always were. "

Amazed By Ignorance wrote on Nov 26, 2008 6:39 AM:

" The end times are upon us. TDN Bad Boy defending the French? Now, I've read it all. The only way I can see to safely dispose of nuclear waste is to shoot it off into space and let inertia handle the rest. Anything built by man on earth, or anywhere for that matter...will only erode with time. "

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