Documents prepared by the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Program Final Environmental Impact Statement Science and Engineering Report Supplemental Yucca Mountain Repository Environmental Impact Statement |
Yucca MountainIn the late 1950s, the National Academy of Science looked into the then-upcoming nuclear-waste disposal situation. At the time reprocessing of the fuel elements was a “given”; thus, it was just the high-level, short half-life decay products that were being considered as nuclear waste. Scientists decided that vitrifying them (making them into glass), encasing them in stainless-steel containers, and burying the canisters in geological formations that hadn’t seen moisture in millions of years was the best way to keep them out of the biosphere and eliminate the possibilities of groundwater contamination. This also allowed for retrieval of the valuable radionuclides if that became desirable in the future. In 1978, the Department of Energy began studying Yucca Mountain, a 4,950-foot ridge in the uninhabited desert 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a site for the long-term storage of high-level nuclear wastes that by now were considered to include the recyclable fuel components. The facility, which has already been paid for by the nuclear power industry and its rate payers, was expected to begin accepting nuclear wastes in 1998. This did not happen due to a bitter fight over the issues of transportation dangers and the firm opposition by the anti-nuclear activists to even the most stringent safety measures to prevent migration of the waste products into the groundwater. Yucca is now scheduled to begin receiving spent fuel in 2017, making it possible that some scientists and engineers will have spent their entire careers studying and constructing the repository. The proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository is planned to contain 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear reactors and high-level radioactive waste from national defense activities.Acceptance Priority Ranking and Annual Capacity Report. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (the Act), assigns the Federal
The Standard Contract provides for the acquisition of title to the spent nuclear fuel and/or high-level waste by the Department, its transportation to Federal facilities, and its subsequent disposal.
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Site Recommendation and Approval Information regarding the Pro's and Con's of Nuclear Energy |
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