Accumulation Of Nuclear Waste Turning Into Atomic Time Bomb
State of the Nation 2014
May 9, 2014
THE NUCLEAR READER
CHAPTER EIGHT: RADIOACTIVE WASTE
THIS CHAPTER POINTS TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE LONG TERM MANAGEMENT OF RADIAOACTIVE WASTE
It does seem criminal to continue operating nuclear power plants which produce poisonous radioactive waste without any hope of a secure location for long term storage, thus obligating future generations to handle the threat of possible radioactive releases of material that would be deadly for hundreds of thousands of years.
In 1987 Yucca Mountain in Nevada was selected as the best possible location for the storage of radioactive waste. There were many problems in going forward with Yucca Mountain. Most worrying is the fact that Yucca Mountain is in an earthquake zone (a seismically active area) with a possibility of future volcanic activity.
After spending $9 billion building this facility, and with no other viable place in line, the plans as of Spring 2011 are to stop the development of Yucca Mountain as a long term storage site for our tons of radioactive waste. The 104 operating nuclear power plants in the USA now have no long term repository for the treatment and storage of their radioactive waste.
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