This Week in CQ Researcher

Managing Nuclear Waste
by Jennifer Weeks, January 28, 2011


Should spent fuel be stored at Yucca Mountain?

Thousands of tons of lethal nuclear waste from civilian power plants and military sites are stored at more than 100 sites around the country. But the federal government doesn’t have a long-term plan today for managing nuclear waste. In the 1980s, Congress decided to build a single underground repository for spent fuel and highly radioactive defense waste in the southern Nevada desert. But work on the Yucca Mountain complex has faced political and technical problems and was canceled by President Obama, who advocates a new storage solution.

Cancellation has created uncertainty for the nuclear power industry and for states where military waste is stored. It also is forcing utilities to pay to store used nuclear fuel at reactors – costs they pass on to customers. Some utilities have won multimillion-dollar lawsuits against the federal government, and more cases are pending. Obama supports expanding nuclear power as a clean energy strategy, but if the waste problem isn’t solved, new reactors may be a hard sell in many states.

• Is transporting radioactive waste dangerous?
  
• Should Congress revive the Yucca Mountain repository?
  
• Should the U.S. recycle plutonium from spent fuel?
  

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ARTstor: Images from The Barnes Foundation

ARTstor has collaborated with the Barnes Foundation to share more than 400 images of works from the permanent collection in the Digital Library. The current release features 59 works by Henri Matisse, as well as other works in the permanent collection, including European and American paintings, works on paper, and objects.

The Barnes Foundation houses one of the most renowned collections of French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early modern art, including masterworks by Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso.

To view ARTstor from off campus locations you need to create an ARTstor account at http://www.artstor.org/ from any computer on the Southwestern College campuses.

You could win $250

Once again the Friends of the SWC Library are sponsoring an essay contest for currently enrolled SWC students. There will be two prizes of $250 each. The essay prompt is based on this year’s College Book, The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Here is the essay prompt:

Pick a character from The Help about whom you have strong feelings . . . someone you really liked, or hated, or felt sorry for. Write an essay analyzing and explaining your choice. Use quotes and page numbers from the book to help support your explanation. Footnotes and Works Cited are not necessary.

Please note that only original submissions that are the student's own work will be considered. Please do not research or use any sources other than The Help. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in disqualification.

Essays must be no more than three pages and submitted by email to essaycontest@swccd.edu before 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, 2011. Late entries will not be accepted! A separate page (not counted in the three maximum) must give the student’s name, SWC ID #, email address, and telephone number. This page will be separated from the essay and a code will be assigned to the it so the judges will not know the identity of the student. No identifiers (name, ID #, etc.) are to appear in the essay itself.

Prizes will be given at the Student Awards Ceremony in May.

Questions? Contact Diane Gustafson at 482-6433 or dgustafson@swccd.edu

CountryWatch: Ireland

This online resource brings together in a concise and useful form, a key set of political, economic, and business information for 192 countries worldwide. Countrywatch also provides news related articles from 12 international news services on a country by country basis as they occur. Within this resource is a Map Gallery that supplies regional and country maps in a variety of sizes and formats. In addition, thematic maps and indexes cover a variety of cultural and economic subjects.

Each month Countrywatch highlights a Featured Country. Ireland is the featured country for January. The country report provides additional insight to Ireland's significant budget deficit and dangerous economic situation. The country report covers not only economic information but also political, environmental, historical, cultural etiquette, a travel guide and health advisory for all 192 countries.

To use the CountryWatch online database visit our Articles and Databases website http://www.swccd.edu/~library/articles.htm. CountryWatch is listed with our other reference resources. To access this resource from off campus locations you must be a currently enrolled student or staff member at Southwestern College. You can request the username and password for CountryWatch by using our Password Request Form at http://www.swccd.edu/~library/Passwordrequest

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