Since Yucca Mountain in Nevada was chosen as the nation’s nuclear waste dump more than thirty years ago, the state has been resisting the project. It got its wish under President Obama.
Fast forward to the Trump presidency, and the long-running topic is once again on the table.
Pahrump, Nevada is one of the nearest communities to Yucca Mountain, which is located in Nye County, Nevada’s poorest county. Marilyn Davis has lived there for the past 18 years.
She replies, “There’s a lot of history.” “There have been a lot of nice things that have occurred here.”
Davis, like many others in this little town of 36,000 people, supports the garbage site’s opening.
“There will never be any houses there. People will never be able to live there. So why not put it to good use and make something beneficial of the property? “she enquires
Where in Nevada is the Yucca Mountain?
Yucca Mountain is a federally owned mountain in Nye County, Nevada, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of Las Vegas.
Why is Yucca Mountain?
The limit for Yucca Mountain under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) is 70,000 metric tonnes of heavy metal (MTHM). According to a DOE ruling, 90 percent of the material, or 63,000 MTHM, would be commercial, while 7,000 MTHM would be classified as defense waste. The original amount of uranium in the fuel before it was irradiated in the reactor is referred to as MTHM. All wasted fuel assemblies are classified as commercial. Defense waste is approximately 2,500 MTHM that has been irradiated in a reactor but has not been reprocessed since reprocessing was ceased.
The remainder is largely glass-based liquid waste that has been (or will be) consolidated and mixed into a solid waste form. The short-lived strontium and cesium have been extracted and stored from most defense waste, making it largely long-lived. Commercial spent fuel contains extremely radioactive fission products such as strontium and cesium, as well as long-lived radionuclides, which is why it is so radioactive as it exits the reactor. In comparison to plutonium, which has a half-life of around 25,000 years, strontium and cesium have half-lives of about 30 years.
A metric tonne is equivalent to around 1.1 English tons, or 2,200 pounds, so 70,000 MTHM is equivalent to about 77,000 tons of original uranium. In around 140 separate fuel rods, a major commercial pressurized water reactor fuel assembly has about half an MTHM.
What is wrong with Yucca Mountain?
Yucca Mountain, according to the state’s official position, is a terrible place to store the nation’s high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel for various reasons: Hydrology, insufficiency of the proposed waste package, repository architecture, and volcanism are among the challenges.
Where does the US dump nuclear waste?
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in the United States, as authorized by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987. The facility is located on government land in Nye County, Nevada, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of the Las Vegas Valley, next to the Nevada Test Site.
The 107th Congress approved the project in 2002, however the 112th Congress halted federal financing for the site on April 14, 2011, during the Obama Administration, with an amendment to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act. The project has had numerous challenges and has been heavily contested by the public, the Western Shoshone peoples, and a number of politicians. State and regional resistance to the project is equally strong. According to the Government Accountability Office, the shutdown was made for political reasons rather than technical or safety concerns.
This leaves the US government (which disposes of its transuranic waste from nuclear weapons production 2,150 feet (660 meters) below ground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico) and American nuclear power plants (which store their high-level radioactive waste (spent fuel) on-site in steel and concrete casks (dry cask storage) at 76 reactor sites in 34 states) with no designated long-term storage.
The Department of Energy (DOE) considered alternatives to Yucca Mountain as a high-level waste dump under President Barack Obama. The Secretary of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future delivered its final report in January 2012. It stated that a site suitable for the construction of a consolidated geological repository was urgently needed, and that any future facility should be developed by a new independent organization with direct access to the Nuclear Waste Fund that is not subject to the same political and financial controls as the Cabinet-level DOE. However, the site was met with fierce resistance in Nevada, especially from then-Senator Harry Reid.
The DOE has halted deep borehole and other non–Yucca Mountain waste disposal research under President Donald Trump. The DOE requested $120 million from Congress in FY18, while the NRC asked $30 million to continue licensing work for the Yucca Mountain Repository. The DOE requested $120 million again for FY19, but the NRC boosted its proposal to $47.7 million. For the balance of FY18, Congress opted not to grant any funding. Representative John Shimkus proposed a bill for the site in the House in May 2019, but an amendment by Representative Mike Simpson to add $74 million in Yucca Mountain money to a DOE appropriations bill was defeated by the Appropriations Committee. Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes stated before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on May 20, 2020, that Trump is opposed to the Yucca Mountain Repository being built.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated in May 2021 that Yucca Mountain will not be included in the Biden administration’s nuclear-waste disposal plans. She expected the department’s next moves to be announced “in the coming months.”
Can you visit Yucca Mountain?
Tourist Attractions Yucca Mountain tours are not available as of 2019. You can, however, schedule a tour of the Nevada Test Site. Early registration is recommended because the tours sell out quickly. Registration for the following year normally begins in June or July.
What is the closest population center to Yucca Mountain?
The aquifer system beneath Yucca Mountain is distinct from that beneath Pahrump, the nearest significant population area, which is about 50 miles away.
Why was Yucca closed?
The DOE, on the other hand, shut down the Yucca Mountain project in 2010, citing no technical or safety concerns. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission was ordered by a federal court in 2014 to complete safety and environmental evaluations of the plant.
Is it safe to live near Yucca Mountain?
Proponents argue that Yucca Mountain is safe since the TSPA computed dose does not exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s radiation limit for discharges from the repository.
What is the history of Yucca Mountain?
In 1978, the federal government began investigating Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada as a potential long-term storage for nuclear waste and radioactive waste created by nuclear power generation and national defense projects. Yucca Mountain was identified as the primary location for nuclear waste storage by Congress in 1987, and the Energy Department began preliminary drilling operations at the site in 1994. The operation was halted in 2004 by the state of Nevada, citing safety concerns, and the project was further challenged by the Obama administration. The project’s future is questionable. What are the environmental, social, and political benefits and drawbacks of a centralized nuclear waste storage facility?