US Report OKs Nuke Storage Site
Aug. 24 -- Moving one step closer to a permanent home for America's nuclear waste, the Department of Energy on Tuesday released a preliminary report suggesting Nevada's Yucca Mountain is a scientifically and environmentally sound site.
Supporters of nuclear energy called the DOE report the biggest step yet toward the development of the proposed Yucca Mountain underground nuclear storage facility.
"This scientific report is the most significant milestone accomplished to date in the federal government's effort to develop a geological disposal facility," said Joe F. Colvin, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear industry trade and lobbying group.
"Most significantly," Colvin said, "the report clearly demonstrates there is a scientific basis for making a decision to proceed to the next steps."
The DOE report admits there is a chance that radioactive waste stored in an underground facility at Yucca Mountain, which is located on federal land, could escape into the environment. But the report concluded that technological safeguards could reduce that risk significantly so that any seepage would be unlikely to occur for at least 10,000 years.
Deep and Dry
The basic strategy for safe waste storage takes advantage of Yucca Mountain's extremely dry climate: Keep the radioactive materials as dry as possible, for as long as possible, so water can't break them down and carry them away.
Any waste stored in the underground repository would be in solid form and, before placement, would need to be sealed in extremely durable, double-shelled containers. While sealed in such containers deep underground, waste radiation wouldn't be able to harm people or contaminate the environment, according to the report.
The report also recommends preliminary designs for the proposed storage site's surface and subsurface facilities, including more than 50 miles of tunnels about 660 to 1,600 feet beneath the surface of the mountain and 1,000 feet above the water table.
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