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Environmental Ethics of the proposed Geological Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain

Environmental Ethics of the proposed Geological Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain. Presented By Mary Morrison. The Issue. What is the issue: High level Nuclear Waste is accumulating at nuclear power plants across the nation. Disposal Options. Drilling down into the ocean floor

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Environmental Ethics of the proposed Geological Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain

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  1. Environmental Ethics of the proposed Geological Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain Presented By Mary Morrison

  2. The Issue • What is the issue: High level Nuclear Waste is accumulating at nuclear power plants across the nation.

  3. Disposal Options • Drilling down into the ocean floor • Burying it in the polar ice sheets • Storing it in a geological repository • Leaving it in current locations

  4. Why Yucca Mountain? • Remote Location • Arid Climate • Geological Frame Work • Nuclear Waste Policy Act 1982 - • amended 1987

  5. Site Characteristic Analysis • Hydrology • Seismic • Volcanic • Climatic

  6. Storage Process • Vitrified process at existing site • Stored in stainless steel canisters at existing site • Canisters are covered with drip shields at Yucca Mountain • Waste is stored in underground tunnels

  7. Ethical Issues • How safe will the repository be? • Intergenerational Equity • Native Shoshone • Estimating Risk • Technical Community vs. Environmentalist

  8. Conclusion • “Do not do to future generations what earlier generations of deciders from 1942-1950 did to us when they committed to a nuclear future. Disposal is as fateful a decision as the earlier one because it launches us upon an incalculable, potentially catastrophic, and possible irreversible course. It is therefore not right or safe or wise to launch until we must. That is the paramount ethical principle now” - Lois Wilson - (Nuclear Waste Exploring the Ethical Dilemmas).

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