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Yucca Mountain and Sustainability

Yucca Mountain and Sustainability. CEVE 306 Hajera Blagg Akshay Dayal Shireen Nasir Grace Nosek. Nuclear Waste. What is nuclear waste?. High-level vs. low-level Thermally hot Radioactive and dangerous Remains for hundreds of thousands of years How much? 52,000 tons of spent fuel

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Yucca Mountain and Sustainability

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  1. Yucca Mountain and Sustainability CEVE 306 Hajera Blagg Akshay Dayal Shireen Nasir Grace Nosek

  2. Nuclear Waste

  3. What is nuclear waste? • High-level vs. low-level • Thermally hot • Radioactive and dangerous • Remains for hundreds of thousands of years • How much? • 52,000 tons of spent fuel • 91 million gallons from plutonium processing

  4. Current Locations of Waste

  5. Waste Storage • Casks are designed to be safe, corrosion-resistant

  6. Alternatives • Currently Feasible • Reprocessing • PUREX • UREX+ • Deep drilling • Dry storage (favored by state of Nevada) • Future Possibilities • Space disposal • New technologies • Microbes • Accelerator Driven Transmutation of Waste (ATW)

  7. The History of Yucca Mountain

  8. The Site • Yucca Mountain is ridge line in South-Central Nevada • Composed of volcanic material ejected from a now-extinct super-volcano • On desert land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas • Can store 77,000 tons of high level radioactive waste

  9. The Western Shoshone Nation • Yucca Mountain: Located within Western Shoshone Nation • 60 million acres of territory in Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and California • Spiritual importance: Snake Mountain • Ancestors are buried in the mountain • Water is sacred • Land never deeded to American government • Legislators trying to extinguish their aboriginal title

  10. “Western Shoshone title is still intact…. We’ve never accepted their money and never will—our land, the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator’s law.” -Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council

  11. Narrowing Down the Sites • 1957: National Academy of Sciences recommends disposing nuclear waste in rock deep underground • 1982: U.S. Congress enacts the Nuclear Waste Policy Act • U.S. Department of Energy (the DOE) is obligated to find a site, build, and operate an underground disposable facility for nuclear waste In 1983: 19 locations in 6 different states

  12. Narrowing Down the Sites • President Reagan in 1985 chose 3 sites for intensive scientific study. • Hanford, Washington; Deaf Smith County, Texas; and Yucca Mountain • 1987: Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 • Many Nevadans lovingly refer to this 1987 bill as the “Screw Nevada Bill”

  13. More Recently • July 9, 2002: Congress votes to approve development of repository • July 23, 2002 President George W. Bush signed House Joint Resolution 87, allowing the DOE to take next step towards safe repository • July 18, 2006 the DOE chooses March 31, 2017 as opening date for the facility and commence taking waste • Shift in balance of power after 2006 midterm congressional elections

  14. Stalled • Senator Reid has vowed to block completion of the project, saying, “Yucca Mountain is dead. It will never happen.” • 2008 Omnibus Spending Bill: Financing reduced to $300 million • Taxpayers may soon have a big problem • After 2017, $500 million/year liability on tax payers repository’s opening is delayed • Current liability: Already $7.0 billion

  15. Money Already Spent • The cost for the program, with an expected life cycle of 136 years (1983-2119), is projected to be $58 billion dollars. • Already $9 billion has been spent. • Is this economically sustainable? Could tax payer dollars be better spent?

  16. The Facility • Main tunnel is U-shape • 5 miles long and 25 feet wide. • Waste will be transferred to the site using rail and road routes. The main route being considered is the rail route through the Caliente Corridor. Routes outside of Nevada will be kept secret. • Although the government points to Europe’s history of safe transportation of nuclear waste as evidence that American transport will also be safe, many citizens worry about transportation and claim that accidents do happen

  17. Contemporary Politics and the Environment

  18. Harry Reid • Nevada Senator and Majority Speaker of the House • Rejection on basis of health and safety standards • Geological implications that could cause leakage • Contamination of aquifer under the site • Harm to people during transportation

  19. Harry Reid (Continued) • Not in hands of government: Tens of thousands of nuclear remains in private hands • Gives incentive to produce even more nuclear waste • Federal Accountability for Nuclear Storage Act of 2007 vs. Nuclear Fuel Management and Disposal Act

  20. Transportation • Walker River Paiute Tribe--> reservation is southeast of Reno (Mina Corridor) • Rejected plan on basis of losing land, safety risks, and security issues • The Caliente Corridor • Flooding risks and close to working class of people

  21. Candidates 2008:John McCain • Nuclear power as an alternative to global warming • Yucca Mountain is a safer alternative to nuclear waste storage next to nuclear power plants • National security and safety threats • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPlaHQCK

  22. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama • Against Yucca mountain • Volcanic eruption possibility • Possibility of contamination of groundwater • Possibility of corrosion of container • NRC Licensing procedures do not take into account EPA radiation standards • Decisions will affect future generations • Should ensure safety

  23. Public Perception and Risk Assessment

  24. Public Reaction to Yucca Mountain • 1989: 69.4% of Nevadans said that they would vote against a repository • In the same survey, 68% of Nevadans agreed with the statement that “The state of Nevada should do all it can to stop the repository.” • Subsequent study showed that opposition increased over the following years to over 80% • Survey Question, “How much you trust each of the following to do what is right with regard to a nuclear waste repository at Yucca?’ • Least Trusted Entities: • DOE • The Nuclear Regulatory Commission • the U.S. Congress

  25. Conclusion: According to the authors of the study, “Restoration and preservation of trust in risk management needs to be given top priority…The problem is not due to public ignorance or irrationality, but is deeply rooted in the adversarial nature of our social, institutional, legal, and political systems of risk management. Public relations won’t create trust. Aggressive and competent government regulation, coupled with increased public involvement, oversight, and local control over decision making might.”

  26. Yucca Mountain - Legitimate risks… Transport risks according to Sierra Club: • 108,500 shipments will be required over 38 years. • exact routes not identified • Rail Watch: rail accidents involving hazardous waste material averaged 33 annually. Thousands are evacuated from their homes or are affected by contamination. • If similar to: Baltimore tunnel fire in 2001 • Thousands of cancer deaths. • 1985 DOE study: If occurred in rural area: would contaminate 42 square miles and would require $600 million to clean up

  27. More transportation risks… • Shipping casks have not been properly tested. • NRC has only used computer-simulated models. Opens the threat of terrorism • Mixed Rail Transport: DOT does not require that nuclear fuel be restricted to their own cars. • Nuclear fuel may be shipped in mixed freight rail cars next to cars containing flammable and explosive materials.

  28. Risks for Wildlife… The Desert Tortoise Status: Threatened According to Amy Schollenger (EPA) • Tortoises are often killed by vehicles. A depository at Yucca mountain would increase traffic because of transport, causing more deaths. • Also, desert tortoises bury into the sand to protect themselves from the desert heat. The repository could cause the heating up of the soil--through thermal conductivity-causing more deaths for an already threatened species.

  29. Risk Predictions • An earthquake in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain could cause groundwater to surge up into the storage area, according to University of Colorado study. • Using computer modeling based on geological data, historical quakes and results from about 20 test wells, they showed that a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake could raise the water table between 450-750 feet at the storage site. Because the repository would be only 600 to 800 feet above the present water table, "flooding could be expected to occur” • The possibility of a volcanic eruption could cause great damage to repository, according to a University of Cambridge study. • Based on their models, the scientists found that magma in the drifts could reach speeds on the order of 200-600 mph [100-300 m/s], filling parts of the repository with magma within a matter of hours after the initial eruption.

  30. …or is at all merely public perception?

  31. Social and Economic Sustainability Considerations

  32. Social and Political • Congress overrode state objections • Screw Nevada bill • NIMBY • Land taken from Native Americans • Intergenerational Equity • No guarantee of health and safety over thousands of years • Monuments – are they enough?

  33. Economic and Scientific • Cost ($60 billion+) — could be invested in alternative energy use • “Most studied piece of geology in the world” • What amount of scientific research is enough? • Are there better scientific options? • Nuclear power: more or less? • 50 new plants by 2020 • Waste vs. climate change • Risky Technologies: Reprocessing

  34. Conclusion • Our Group’s Decision • Yucca Mtn. not sustainable • Taxpayers are financially locked in • Split on necessity

  35. Sources http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_envirnnuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewaste/yucca/articles.cfm?ID=12788 http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/yucca/health01.htm http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2007/12/john-mccain-on-nuclear-energy-and-yucca.html http://reid.senate.gov/issues/yucca.cfm http://reid.senate.gov/issues/upload/Yucca FedAccountNucWaste.pdf http://reid.senate.gov/issues/yucca.cfm http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ym_repository/index.shtml http://ocrwm.doe.gov/info_library/newsroom/photos/index.shtml http://www.slate.com/id/2188984/ http://www.sacredland.org/endangered_sites_pages/yucca_mountain.html http://www.aip.org/fyi/2002/081.html http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0115.shtmlhttp://www.nrc.gov/waste/hlw-disposal.html http://earthwatch.unep.net/radioactivewaste/index.phphttp://blogs.princeton.edu/chm333/f2006/nuclear/06_waste_disposal/04_strategies/geologic_storage/yucca_mountain_1/http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ym_repository/index.shtmlhttp://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_terrorism/extracting-plutonium-from-nuclear-reactor-spent-fuel.html http://www.radwaste.org/

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