Partial NRC Report On Yucca Mt A Win For Science

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 10/21/14

Dr. Conca reports that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission -NRC- has essentially said that the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada would probably be OK for storing our high-level nuclear waste for a million years. This is a big win for Science, a big win for The Process, and a big win for the Rule of Law. Along with the recent NRC Waste Confidence ruling that long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel is safe for over a hundred years, this gives us two options for our waste. And there are more, better options out there as well. No one can say we do not know what to do with this waste or that we do not have viable plans. But this report was not a surprise and does not really change anything. Thanks to the public irrational fear of radiation, it will cost ten times what its needs to cost anyway. There are ways to use science and engineering to reduce the cost, but they never seem to get seriously considered. Only the grandiose, most complicated, most costly ideas resonate with non-scientists when it comes to nuclear matters. Shooting it into the Sun still sounds good to some people. On October 14, the NRC published just Volume 3, out of 5 required, of its Safety Evaluation Report -SER- on the proposed underground geologic nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. They found that the design met the requirements for the million-year time period after the repository would be filled and permanently closed. Besides, most of the scientific results and discoveries that came out of the Yucca Mountain Project are useful for any site we end up choosing. We did not actually waste much of that money and effort. The fact that our nuclear waste program has become tied up in courts and politics is not good. Dr. Conca likes lawyers as much as the next guy, but he suggests that we need to back up and let science and public consent lead us down the right path for our nuclear future.