Don’t rush to lift Illinois moratorium on new nuclear power plants

The Legislature should consider the need for permanent safe storage of radioactive spent nuclear fuel before lifting Illinois’ moratorium on new nuclear power plants. (Sun-Times Library)

In north suburban Zion, hazardous spent nuclear fuel stored in concrete casks sits on the site of a shuttered nuclear power plant, keeping the city from redeveloping prime lakefront land or building a park.

The fuel has nowhere to go because the nation has never opened a permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel, which can remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years.