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Yucca Mountain is NOT the answer to USA’s nuclear wastes

This threat should disqualify the site, especially when combined with the fact that Southwestern water resources will be polluted with radiation as waste canisters at Yucca Mountain disintegrate over time.

Solving the problem of nuclear waste The Hill’s Congress Blog By Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) 12 April 11 – At a time when our nation is making tough choices about spending, I am amazed that Congressman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and other House Republicans are demanding we dump $100 billion into Yucca Mountain. This shuttered boondoggle, located 90 minutes from Las Vegas, is nothing more than an empty hole in the Nevada desert.

While some are seeking to use the tragic events in Japan to once again push for moving nuclear waste to Nevada, they fail to mention that Yucca Mountain is located smack in the middle of an earthquake zone.

This threat should disqualify the site, especially when combined with the fact that Southwestern water resources will be polluted with radiation as waste canisters at Yucca Mountain disintegrate over time.

Americans all across the country would also be threatened by the dangers of transporting nuclear waste to the Yucca dump. This action would leave us one accident away from a disaster that could cause catastrophic damage and leave major population centers uninhabitable.

And we would run this risk as part of an effort that does nothing to eliminate spent fuel rods from cooling ponds at America’s operating nuclear plants.

The Department of Energy says it would take at least four decades to move spent fuel located at more than 100 sites nationwide to Yucca Mountain. And during that time, those nuclear reactors would not stop churning out nuclear waste.

At the end of 40 years, there would be more waste in cooling ponds than there is today. While the Yucca dump is unworkable and unsafe, there remains an affordable, practical solution for securing waste stockpiles now. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has certified that spent nuclear fuel can be isolated safely in dry-cask storage for the next 100 years. …

Such a move will help address the need to secure waste now and will provide our nation with an opportunity to find a true alternative to burying nuclear garbage 90 minutes from Las Vegas where it will remain dangerous for the next one million years.

Solving the problem of nuclear waste – The Hill’s Congress Blog

April 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes