The Department of Energy released a report, “Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste.”  It details the Obama administration’s plans for dealing with a continuing problem.

The NRC is freezing final decisions on licensing new reactors and relicensing old ones, until it comes up with a substitute for the waste confidence rule recently overturned by the US Court of Appeals. Processing of applications will continue. (Platts)

There is a recent report by R. Alvarez, former Policy Adviser to the Secretary of Energy, under the Clinton administration which claims that an earthquake at Fukushima Unit 4 could cause a widespread disaster by the release of Cs-137 from the spent nuclear fuel stored in the cooling pond. Let’s examine some of the information and see if this has any factual or technical basis.