What is Yucca Mountain used for?
What is Yucca Mountain used for?
The Yucca Mountain repository is the proposed spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository where both types of radioactive waste could be disposed.
Why is Yucca Mountain suitable for nuclear waste?
The nuclear industry and experts want a long-term, safer dump than the more than 100 pools currently holding nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain was chosen because it is in a desert location far from population centers, and because it is surrounded by federal land.
Where does nuclear waste go in us?
Right now, all of the nuclear waste that a power plant generates in its entire lifetime is stored on-site in dry casks. A permanent disposal site for used nuclear fuel has been planned for Yucca Mountain, Nevada, since 1987, but political issues keep it from becoming a reality.
Where is nuclear waste buried?
For the sub-seabed disposal option, radioactive waste containers would be buried in a suitable geological setting beneath the deep ocean floor. This option has been suggested for LLW, ILW, and HLW. Variations of this option include: A repository located beneath the seabed.
When did Bechtel start working on Yucca Mountain?
Starting in 2001, Bechtel and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) teamed up to conduct even more extensive studies, computer modeling, and sophisticated analytic surveys exploring the site’s potential as a repository.
Who is the contractor for Yucca Mountain in Nevada?
The state of Nevada also files lawsuits against the U.S. government, the DOE and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), challenging the Yucca Mountain project on many grounds. In February, Bechtel SAIC becomes the primary management and operations contractor at Yucca Mountain.
Is the Yucca Mountain Project a backdoor project?
A proposed change to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) interpretation of what counts as high-level nuclear waste could result in a backdoor effort to store nuclear waste in Nevada Read more… This website is offered in order to shed light on the Yucca Mountain effort.
Where is the nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain?
Approximately 65,000 tons are currently in temporary storage at the sites where it was produced. In 1987, Congress singled out Yucca Mountain, located in Nye County, Nevada, adjoining the Nevada Test Site, as the site for intensive study of long-term storage of high-level nuclear waste.