Nuclear waste Yucca Mountain, Nevada

For the centralized disposal of high-level nuclear wastes, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, was selected in large part because of national security concerns. 

December. U.S. Congress approves Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the only repositoiy site for high-level nuclear waste. 

Pearcy, E. C., Prokryl, J. D., Murphy, W. M. Leslie, B. W. 1994. Alteration of uraninite from the Nopal I deposit, Pena Blanca District, Chihuahua, Mexico, compared to degradation of SNF in the proposed U.S. high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Applied Geochemistry, 9, 713—732. 

NRC (2001). U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 10 CFR Part 63—Disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in a proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, Final rule, 66 FR 55732 (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington). 

Introduction actinide solubilities in reference waters. In this section, the environmental chemistry of the actinides is examined in more detail by considering three different geochemical environments. Compositions of groundwater from these environments are described in Tables 5 and 6. These include (i) low-ionic-strength reducing waters from crystalline rocks at nuclear waste research sites in Sweden (ii) oxic water from the J-13 well at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the site of a proposed repository for high-level nuclear waste in tuffaceous rocks and (iii) reference brines associated with the WIPP, a repository for TRU in... 

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (2001) 10 CFR Parts 2, 19, 20, 21, etc. disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in a proposed geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada final rule. Federal Register 66(213), 55732-55816. 

Research has focused on Yucca Mountain, Nevada, at the western edge of the National Test Site, for its suitability as a nuclear waste repository for SNF and some defense waste. Many political leaders of Nevada strongly oppose this plan, and they seriously question that nuclear waste can be safely kept out of the human environment for 10,000 years, as is required under the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act. 

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is being considered as the site for deep geological disposal of U.S. high-level nuclear wastes. Any release of uranium (or other radionuclides) from the waste to... 

Winterle J.R. and Murphy W.M., 1998. Time scales for dissolution of calcite fracture filling s and implications for saturated zone radionuclide transport at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in Proceedings of the Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXII Symposium - Fall 1998 Meeting. Warendale, PA, Material Research Society. 

Just over 20% of the electricity generated in the United States is produced by nuclear power plants. In 1995, 32,200 metric tons of spent fuel, with a total activity of 30,200 MCi, was stored by the electric utilities at 70 sites (either in pools or in dry storage systems) (Ahearne 1997, Richardson 1997). By 2020, the projected inventory will be 77,100 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM) with a total activity of 34,600 MCi. Although the volume of the spent fuel is only a few percent of the volume of HLW, over 95% of the total activity (defense-related plus commercially generated waste) is associated with the commercially generated spent nuclear fuel (Crowley 1997). At present in the United States, none of the spent fuel will be reprocessed all is destined for direct disposal in a geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (Hanks et al. 1999). 

Another problem with nuclear power plants is their radioactive waste production. The United States has debated where and how to permanently store nuclear wastes. In July 2002, an underground site was authorized at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The Yucca Mountain facility was closed in 2009. A permanent site for nuclear waste storage has not yet been decided upon. 

House Joint Resolution 87. 2002. Yucca Mountain, Nevada Nuclear Waste Repository, Washington, DC. 

A second problem associated with nuclear power is waste disposal. Although the amormt of nuclear fuel used in electricity generation is small compared to other fuels, the products of the reaction are radioactive and have very long half-lives (thousands of years or more). What do we do with this waste Currently, in the United States, nuclear waste is stored on site at the nuclear power plants. A permanent disposal site was being developed in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The site had originally been scheduled to be operational in 2010, and that date was later delayed to 2017. However, the Obama administration determined that the Yucca Mountain site was untenable, and in the spring of 2010, the license application to develop this... 

In 1982, lawmakers passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which established a program to build this countiy s first underground nuclear waste repositoiy, a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. In 1987, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, was chosen for study as a potential site. The stable rock formations deep underground combined with sparse population and little rainfall make it an ideal location for the site. Nuclear waste will be encased in several layers of containment material and placed in tunnels drilled out of the rock formations 1000 ft beneath the ground. The storage facility should keep these materials isolated from us and from the environment for the foreseeable future. However, as might be expected, the construction of the facility is controversial, with many opposing even the idea. The facility had been scheduled to be operational in 2010, but delays have pushed back that date to 2017 at the earliest. 

Turner, D.R., R.T. Pabalan, J.D. Prikryl, and F.P. Bertetti. 1999. Radionuclide sorption at Yucca Mountain, Nevada Demonstration of an alternative approach for performance assessment, p. 583-590. In J. Lee and D. Wronkiewicz (ed.) MRS Symp. Proc. Vol. 556. Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXII. Mat. Res. Soc., Pittsburgh, PA. 

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