Illinois: A Nuclear Waste Storage and Transportation Hub?

About 13 percent of America's 70,000 metric tons of the radioactive waste generated by nuclear plants in the United States is stashed in pools of water or in special casks at the atomic plants in Illinois where the waste was produced, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington-based industry group -- the most of any state. Risk is minimal, but storage would be better in Yucca mountain [...]

“There is no question that Illinois generally and Chicago specifically would see a high volume of [nuclear waste] traffic if the nation opts for centralized interim storage facilities. We’re not merely at risk, we’re the bullseye.” 

-- Dave Kraft, Executive Director of the Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago

A June 2012 study [PDF] by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory using spatial modeling suggests that northern Illinois would be among the top possibilities [...]

NUCLEAR SAFETY (420 ILCS 20/) Illinois Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Act [...]




View Larger Map of ~1800 miles from Chicago to Yucca Mountain ...