More than 1K metric tons of spent uranium fuel still in temporary storage in Nebraska

Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station powered kitchen blenders, cash registers and televisions in eastern Nebraska for more than four decades by harnessing the energy released by splitting uranium atoms.

Deemed too expensive to keep running, the power station’s generators ceased spinning Oct. 24. Yet a highly radioactive legacy remains.

Spent fuel rods — nuclear waste potent for thousands of years — will remain along the Missouri River’s west bank for the foreseeable future.

Fort Calhoun and the larger still-operating Cooper Nuclear Station, south of Brownville, had 1,010 metric tons of used uranium fuel in temporary storage as of February, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.

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