Is Yucca Mountain safe for nuclear waste?

WASHINGTON, DC– Yucca Mountain in Nevada, designated over 30 years ago to store spent nuclear fuel, continues to be the safest solution to this national issue. Congress designated Yucca Mountain as the location for a national permanent nuclear waste repository back in 1987. …

How would nuclear waste be guarded at Yucca Mountain?

Yucca Mountain The extremely dense volcanic rock of the mountain has small pores, preventing any water leakage through the rock. In addition, waste would be stored far above water sources in the mountain. These features would effectively shield the waste and prevent the release of radioactivity.

Why is Yucca Mountain a good place to store nuclear waste?

The DOE maintains that Yucca Mountain was selected because it was consistently ranked as the site that possessed the best technical and scientific characteristics to serve as a repository. The Department says that Yucca Mountain is a good place to store waste because the repository would be: In a desert location.

Where is the best place to store nuclear waste?

Disposal of low-level waste is straightforward and can be undertaken safely almost anywhere. Storage of used fuel is normally under water for at least five years and then often in dry storage. Deep geological disposal is widely agreed to be the best solution for final disposal of the most radioactive waste produced.

Why is Yucca Mountain bad?

The state’s official position is that Yucca Mountain is a singularly bad site to house the nation’s high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel for several reasons: These issues include hydrology, inadequacy of the proposed waste package, repository design and volcanism.

What are the pros of Yucca Mountain?

The waste, composed primarily of spent fuel rods from commercial nuclear power plants, needs, at a minimum, to be isolated for 10,000 years, by which time many of the dangerous radionuclides it contains will have decayed.

Is the Yucca Mountain site has been licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received an application from the Department of Energy on June 3, 2008, for a license to construct the nation’s first geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

What would happen if Yucca Mountain leaked?

At Yucca Mountain, an underground repository could be susceptible to seismic activity, volcanism, and water percolation. If the radiation were to leak, it could contaminate underground water supplies.

Is the Yucca Mountain facility in use?

Delays since 2009. Starting in 2009, the Obama administration attempted to close the Yucca Mountain repository, despite current US law that designates Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository.

What are the arguments against using Yucca Mountain for a national nuclear waste repository?

NATIONAL SECURITY: Contrary to DOE arguments, building the Yucca Mountain repository will not make America safer. Instead, it will give terrorists more attractive and vulnerable targets. The DOE expects more than 100,000 shipments of spent fuel to be transported to Yucca Mountain-thus creating 100,000 mobile targets.