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Yucca Mountain: The
Most Studied Real Estate on the Planet -This paper was written by Senator James M. Inhofe U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and his Majority Staff and submitted in March of 2006 to the Chairman of the US Senate and addresses the analyses conducted at the site as well as explanations of the scientific issues surrounding it. In addition, the paper also considers the regulatory and legal challenges pertaining to the site.
US Senate Committee on Envrionmental & Public Works 03/01/2006 - COMMITTEE RELEASES REPORT TO THE CHAIRMAN REGARDING YUCCA MOUNTAIN Yucca Mountain: The Most Studied Real Estate on the Planet (PDF)
AT THE MOUNTAIN: Pete Vavricka conducts an underground train. The Nevada laboratory facility at the site currently employs about 2,000 scientists and staff. The controversy surrounding the proposed Yucca Mountain waste repository is both political and scientific. The perceived threat of nuclear materials heavily influences public opinion, and environmentalists are reticent to trade many smaller environmental problems for a large potential hazard. Some people cite the Yucca Mountain facility as a means of centralizing the problem of nuclear waste. Project proponents claim that the repository will lessen environmental risk and keep volatile, dangerous materials secure and controlled. |
Yucca Mountain In September of 1955, a group of the nation’s most distinguished scientists met at Princeton University under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to consider the possibilities of disposing radioactive waste materials on land and to identify the research needed to support such activities. Two years later, these scientists released a report concluding “The Committee is convinced that radioactive waste can be disposed of safely in a variety of ways and at a large number of sites in the United States.” Hence the nation’s search for a land based disposal site was launched. Q?: Why is Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the federal government's location for a deep geologic repository for the safe storage of used nuclear fuel? A: The Nuclear Waste Policy Act required an examination of nine sites in six states. Several government agencies and scientific organizations participated in environmental studies and scientific evaluations of these sites. After a 1986 Department of Energy study ranking Yucca Mountain first among these sites, Congress amended the law in 1987 and directed DOE to focus its scientific and environmental investigation entirely on Yucca Mountain. Since that time all aspects of the geological, hydrological and geochemical environment have been studied, along with evaluation of how conditions might evolve over thousands of years at Yucca Mountain. Video broadcast of various aspects of Yucca Mountain, including an aerial view of the site and shots of the underground laboratory and related topics. Click here for a sample, which includes a shot list of pertinent video clips. The Yucca Mountain Project is the primary activity of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. For more than 20 years, DOE has studied Yucca Mountain to determine if a potential repository there can isolate nuclear waste in a manner sufficient to protect the health and safety of current and future generations and the environment. Scientists have extensively studied Yucca Mountain's geology, hydrology, chemistry, and climate. Concurrently, experts have designed waste containers and other barriers that would work with the natural environment to isolate the waste in the repository. Currently, there are thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel located in government and commercial storage facilities at 131 sites in 39 states throughout the country. These materials could pose a risk to the health and safety of future generations if not properly managed. The total inventory of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the United States could eventually exceed 100,000 metric tons of heavy metal (one metric ton equals 2,204.6 pounds). Some elements of this waste are hazardous for only a few years; others are hazardous for thousands of years. For more information - Program Briefing
This graphic shows options studied by scientists for years to find the best option for permanently desposiing of nuclear waste, including leaving the material at current storage sites - (see state graphic at right). Studies of these and other options are documented in the U.S. Department of Energy's 1980 Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste. The Record of Decision for that environmental impact statement designated deep geologic repositories as the preferred means of disposal. The state of Nevada issued a report Impacts of the Proposed Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository Program which discusses "...the potential to wreak economic, social, and envrionmental devastation on at least 44 states, including Nevada, hundreds of major cities, and thousands of communities across the country through which spent nculear fuel (SNF) and high-level radiactive waste (HLW) must travel." In this impact report Esmeralda County specific impacts are discussed in VOLUME II, Appendix VII. According to the National Academy of Sciences, "After four decades of study, geological disposal remains the only scientifically and technically credible long-term solution available to meet the need for safety without reliance on active management. It also offers security benefits because it would place fissile materials out of reach of all but the most sophisticated weapons builders." But in December of 2005, U.S. Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign introduced legislation mandating that nuclear waste be stored on-site where it is produced and requiring the federal government to take responsibility for possession, stewardship, maintenance, and monitoring of the waste. Senator offers plan to store nuclear waste. Reid and Ensign have pointed to a long list of set backs for the Yucca Mountain project including a July, 2004 court decision that the radiation standard for the site was not stringent enough to protect the public from the significant risks associated with nuclear waste and a November 2004 announcement by the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board that there is no plan for safely transporting nuclear waste to the proposed repository. In June of 2006, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., advanced a nuclear waste management plan he said would break a logjam in which thousands of tons of used nuclear fuel have accumulated at power plants. Plant operators have sued the Department of Energy for not taking the material away as promised. The controversy Because Congress has banned reprocessing spent fuel, all the nations high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel must be safely stored—for eons. A critical storage issue is the lingering radioactivity of plutonium, neptunium, and other actinides in the spent fuel. The half-lives of these elements are so long that the waste must be stored for more than 10,000 years without significant leakage to the environment. No matter how clever we are in engineering containment barriers— designing storage canisters and tunnels to isolate the waste—eventually, water will seep through the repository, corrode the canisters, dissolve waste radionuclides, and carry them off. When that happens, nature itself—the natural geologic barriers—will have to lend a hand in containing the waste. The State of Nevada's Position:The State of Nevada leaders believe the current high-level nuclear waste dump program is fatally flawed, and because of this have found it necessary to oppose the use of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository for a variety of reasons. Much evidence shows that Yucca Mountain is not safe for nuclear waste disposal in that it is geologically and hydrologically active and complex.
The Yucca Mountain controversy involves fundamental issues of a state's right to determine its economic and environmental future and to consent or object to federal projects within its borders. Radiation from nuclear waste proposed for Yucca Mountain burial is so intense that anyone with direct contact would receive a fatal dose instantly. Spent nuclear fuel contains tons of plutonium, an extremely toxic byproduct with a half-life of 24,000 years. One-billionth of an ounce, if ingested, can cause cancer or genetic defects. Politics and economics. Many feel these influences are too great to allow for an objective evaluation of the site. Dump proponents and the nuclear power industry are eager to get the site approved despite significant environmental and health and safety problems. Should the site not work out, the nuclear industry believes it would be set back decades in its goal to build new nuclear power plants.Besides the State of Nevada various organizations and communities object to the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository for a variety of reasons. Many are concerned with the safety issues involved with transporting high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel through their states and therefore their neighborhoods. The DOE points to the safety record at the Waste Isolation Pilot Program in Carlsbad, New Mexico where low-level radioactive waste has been transported accross the country since March of 1999. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is the world's first underground repository licensed to safely and permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive waste left from the research and production of nuclear weapons. (see image below) State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects The Agency for Nuclear Projects operates as part of the Nevada Governor's Office and consists of a Division of Technical Programs and a Division of Planning. The Executive Director is appointed by the governor and serves at the pleasure of the Commission on Nuclear Projects. The seven member Commission advises the governor and legislature on nuclear wastes issues and oversees Agency activities. The Agency oversees the federal high-level radioactive waste disposal program; carries out independent technical, socioeconomic and other studies; works closely with state agencies and local governments on matters relating to radioactive waste; and provides information to the governor, legislature, and any interested parties. The Agency uses a small, central staff supplemented by contractual services for needed technical and specialized expertise in order to provide high quality oversight and monitoring of federal activities, to conduct necessary independent studies, and to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts and resources. Other issues (but not all) are addressed at these web site links: Nuclear Information and Resource Service - NIRS is the information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues. Citizen Alert - was founded in 1975 in response to federal government plans to dump high-level nuclear waste in Nevada. Please visit our external publications pages for more information and links to in depth studies conducted in regard to the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.
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The DOE goal for a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain is to isolate nuclear waste from people and the environment for tens of thousands of years.
Cut-away graphics showing the infrastructure of the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository
Repository tunnel with waste packages. Nature and engineering working together for a safe repository
Repository tunnels with waste packages
Aerial view of Yucca Mountain riff
Yucca Mountain is located in a remote desert on federally protected land within the secure boundaries of the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada. It is approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. (see map at right) < | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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