Are there potential concerns about Yucca Mountain as the site of a waste repository?
There is ongoing debate over whether the geologic features and proposed engineered barriers at Yucca Mountain will provide sufficient isolation for permanent disposal. A number of interested parties believe Yucca Mountain has certain characteristics that pose a concern for long-term isolation of highly radioactive materials. The State of Nevada’s Nuclear Waste Project Office points to Yucca’s location in an active seismic (earthquake) region; the presence of numerous earthquake faults (at least 33 in and around the site) and volcanic cinder cones near the site; evidence of hydrothermal activity within the proposed repository block; and the presence of pathways (numerous interconnecting faults and fractures) that could move groundwater (and any escaping radioactive materials) rapidly through the site to the aquifer beneath and from there to the accessible environment.
