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“Outstanding service. They were extremely careful delivering the extra large container into our driveway.” -- A. L. GARNER
Boulder County require a specified level of diversion from residential construction projects as part of their green building ordinances. Fort Collins also has an ordinance, but for both residential and commercial projects. These ordinances have helped drive some diversion and increased awareness of diversion opportunities. However, enforcing these ordinances has proved challenging, which can decrease their effectiveness. Finally, a unique aspect of C&D waste compared to other types of waste is that much of it can be reused. Whether it is dimensional lumber, old kitchen cabinets, decorative tile or counter tops, there are organizations that have created programs and business opportunities for the reuse of C&D waste. By deconstructing buildings rather than demolishing them, material can be salvage for re-sale. The Center for Resource Conservation operates the ReSource Yard in Boulder, and it assists residential projects with deconstruction plans, hauling of salvageable material and sale of salvageable material to the community. In Loveland, Uncle Benny’s Building Supplies has been salvaging and selling used and new building materials for 17 years. Colorado’s economy is booming but unfortunately, so is C&D waste. There is no denying that Colorado has significant hurdles to overcome to increase the C&D waste diversion, but it is encouraging to see both the public and private sectors developing resources and options to create more diversion opportunities. Kevin Afflerbaugh of Western Disposal writes an occasional column about green business practices. ... (BizWest Media)
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository but was put on hold in 2011 by Obama, who once held Duckworth's Senate seat.Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, thinks that lawmakers would want to move forward with getting the Yucca Mountain project moving again to remove those fuel rods, instead of just cutting a check every year. Get news headlines sent daily to your inbox "I think that the people of Zion and their leadership would like to see that spent nuclear fuel off the shores of Lake Michigan," he said. "I think they would like to see it open for redevelopment."Shimkus is sponsoring a bill that would jump-start the Yucca Mountain project. Zion native and state Rep. Sheri Jesiel, R-Gurnee, understands the need to move on the Yucca project but thinks the local government needs assistance in the meantime. "We're not only storing spent fuel but we're taking the hit in the community for loss of revenue," she said. "Exelon and ratepayers have paid into a fund over the years for the remediation of this."Shimkus says paying off the cities will be a disincentive to move faster on getting the Yucca Mountain repository open. Dresden's nuclear plant in Morris stores spent fuel from a now-decommissioned reactor, but still has two operational reactors. The proposed law would only send subsidies to cities that are the sites of entirely decommissioned plants. ...
At the other end of the debate is U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, a Republican from Collinsville. For years he has been a vocal proponent for getting the Yucca Mountain project back on track as a way to solve a nuclear waste conundrum that has been festering across America — especially in Illinois — while also aiding a nuclear power industry that faces a problem the federal government was supposed to have solved decades ago.Shimkus points out that the Mojave Desert site “is nobody’s back yard.”“That land mass is bigger than some of our New England states,” noted Shimkus. He sees it as a choice between putting the waste “in a location where it will be safe for a million years, versus a place that should be developed as lakefront property” — such as the shuttered nuclear power site at Zion.THE SCIENCENuclear energy is produced by fission — the literal “splitting of the atom” —within the controlled environment of a nuclear power plant. It is fueled by ceramic pellets that contain uranium and are sealed in metal tubes, called fuel rods. The nuclear reaction within the rods creates heat, which is used to boil water into steam, which drives turbines, which produces electricity.Since the first nuclear reaction was achieved in the mid-20th Century, the promise of nuclear fission as a power source — its cleanliness in comparison to coal, its virtually inexhaustible supply — has come with a big asterisk.T... (WNIJ and WNIU)
At the other end of the debate is U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, a Republican from Collinsville. For years he has been a vocal proponent for getting the Yucca Mountain project back on track as a way to solve a nuclear waste conundrum that has been festering across America — especially in Illinois — while also aiding a nuclear power industry that faces a problem the federal government was supposed to have solved decades ago.Shimkus points out that the Mojave Desert site “is nobody’s back yard.”“That land mass is bigger than some of our New England states,” notes Shimkus. He sees it as a choice between putting the waste “in a location where it will be safe for a million years, versus a place that should be developed as lakefront property” — such as the shuttered nuclear power site at Zion.THE SCIENCENuclear energy is produced by fission — the literal “splitting of the atom” —within the controlled environment of a nuclear power plant. It is fueled by ceramic pellets that contain uranium and are sealed in metal tubes, called fuel rods. The nuclear reaction within the rods creates heat, which is used to boil water into steam, which drives turbines, which produces electricity.Since the first nuclear reaction was achieved in the mid-20th Century, the promise of nuclear fission as a power source — its cleanliness in comparison to coal, its virtually inexhaustible supply — has come with a big asterisk.The uranium fuel eventually loses its effectiveness in the nuclear reaction, and has to be replaced. The removed, “spent” fuel rods will continue to be dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. In addition to the health and environmental hazards, the waste contains materials that, in the wrong hands, could be weaponized. This stuff can't just go into a dumpster.Ten “years after removal from a reactor, the surface dose rate for a typical spent fuel assembly exceeds 10,000 rem (a unit of radiation) /hour — far greater than the fatal whole-body dose for humans of about 500 rem,” explains a 2015 report by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission outlining the state of America’s nuclear waste issue.The best solution, experts concluded decades ago, is to build a remote, impenetrable national repository where America's nuclear waste could be consolidated and contained, monitored and guarded in one place, essentially forever.Conversely, the most dangerous situation, it is generally agreed, would be to allow that waste to simply remain on site where it was produced, at dozens of nuclear plants around the country — many of them near population centers, each one requiring endless vigilance, each one a potential environmental disaster or terrorist target.And yet that's exactly where we are today.Over the decades, U.S. nuclear reactors have produced some 79,000 metric tons of radioactive waste, a figure that grows by more than 2,000 metric tons every year. Most of it has remained in temporary storage in the same roughly 70 sites in more than 30 states where it was used, for the simple fact that there is nowhere else to put it. More than 10,000 tons of it resides in Illinois.The waste is stored on site, first in deep-water pools made of thick reinforced concrete, where the spent rods — which initially are thermally hot as well as radioactive — can begin to cool. They are cooled for three to five years before removal to “dry cask” storage, in steel cylinders, surrounded by inert gas, welded shut and encased on concrete and other shielding.As thorough as that storage might sound, the process never was meant to end there.“Spent fuel storage at power plant sites is considered temporary with the ultimate goal being permanent disposal,” notes the U.S. NRC report. “However, at this time there are no facilities for permanent disposal of high-level waste.”... (NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS)
Oakland and the Rockies and a four-game split with the Cardinals.“Six and four, sometimes that’s not good enough,” Terry Collins said, letting some reality seep through his public optimism. “Eight and two is good enough.”So count on Reed, the guy likely to get the biggest return, to go by the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Cabrera, despite saying, “I hope [I’m]” still a Met upon the team’s return home, has to know in his veteran heart that he’s a goner. A crowded scout area here Sunday featured eyes and ears from the Diamondbacks, Red Sox, Indians, Dodgers, Mariners and Yankees; the Dodgers and Red Sox make plenty of sense as a landing spot for Reed, and the Sawx, Cleveland and Seattle all could use Cabrera to upgrade their infields.(The Yankees could still wind up with Duda, or his Sunday counterpart Yonder Alonso of the A’s, if the price drops low enough. Duda — or anyone besides Reed or Cabrera, really — could wind up as an August trade.)None of these trades will bring back the sort of talent to energize a fan base, as Gleyber Torres and Clint Frazier did for the Yankees universe a year ago. This will not be a satisfying week for Mets fans in that vein.The satisfaction, the Mets hope, that will keep this team above its 1992 and 2002 ancestors on the “all-time disappointing Mets teams” lists, will be Rosario and, to a lesser degree, Smith. Rosario, who missed a sixth straight game for Las Vegas on Sunday yet intends to return to action shortly, will bring athleticism, excitement and optimism if all goes well. He’ll allow Mets fans to dream of a 2018 with him leading off for a lineup featuring Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto and Smith — and perhaps Wilmer Flores and T.J. Rivera, with Jose Reyes playing a blend of Ben Zobrist and Yoda.That vision awaits the Mets. For now, “Certainly the next week’s going to be hard,” Collins said. “I will do the best I can to try to keep their mind on the game and [not] worry who the trading talks are about.”The Mets dropped to 2-7 in Sunday afternoon home games, yet this marked the only one of those seven losses in which they kept the game remotely close. Rafael Montero pitched respectably, offering another signal that he might actually have value moving forward.Now, the whole organization moves forward. Even as it’s almost certainly too late to achieve the top goal of 2017, it’s not too late to make something of this season. You didn’t want to see such an ambitious club enter Phase 2. But it’ll be here when the Mets return home.Share this:... (New York Post)
