Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed – Las Vegas Sun

YUCCA MOUNTAIN:

Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed

LAS VEGAS SUN 5 April 09 “……………………………………….The biggest of the alleged holes in the Energy Department’s Yucca license application, according to Nevada, is that the project’s safety plans rely on installing 11,000 titanium drip shields 100 years from now, after the waste has been placed inside the mountain. Installing the drip shields would require technology that hasn’t been invented, the state says, and the application does not consider the effects if the drip shields cannot be installed.Nevada, several counties and others would like to bring forward hundreds of other concerns about the Energy Department’s science. They say it fails to take into account expected changes in precipitation tied to global warming, fails to use the right calculations for volcanic activity, fails to properly anticipate how fast waste canisters will corrode and fails to substantiate that the department could block air traffic over the mountain to avoid air crashes.

These groups also argue that environmental impact statements didn’t sufficiently consider the effect of transporting waste to the site.In all, there were 320 contentions from 14 groups.The Energy Department says none of these critiques should be heard because they all violate technical requirements of the regulations.

Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed – Las Vegas Sun

April 6, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes