Whats Wrong with Burying Nuclear Waste at Yucca Mountain?
In 1987 Congress selected Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the sole candidate to be studied for a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste from the nations commercial reactors. Unfortunately, the decision was based more on political expediency than scientific consensus. While the risks of transporting and burying highly toxic nuclear waste make geologic disposal a flawed concept, the Yucca Mountain site presents unique problems. Since the mountains selection, site suitability studies have raised serious technical questions while the Department of Energy’s program has run overbudget and provoked extensive criticism. An Unsuitable Site The toxic materials in irradiated reactor fuel will remain lethal for hundreds of thousands of years. In the early 1980s, burial of the high-level waste was seen by many as the best option for disposal. Since then, however, complex and significant doubts have been raised about a geologic repository’s ability to ensure the irradiated fuels isolation. Yu
