Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site

Effect of Location Site on Corrosion of Nuclear Waste Storage Containers The plan consists of a permanent nuclear depository to build at a relatively dry site with a depth of several hundred meters below the earth s surface. It is envisaged that the presence of water will eventually corrode the storage containers. In the United States, the Yucca Mountain site is reported to be a good location... 

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. 

Yucca Mountain, if it becomes the site for the isolation of SNF, will be laced with tunnels, waste in storage casks and monitoring equipment. A waiting period is planned while better isolation alteniadvcs are sought. IfYucca Mountain is not used, it is to be refilled with the tuff material removed earlier. In the United States the SNF that would be isolated in Yucca Mountain would be waste that has not been reprocessed it would be material that has come out of nuclear reactors and has been cooled at the plant site. 

The state of Nevada is home to a number of nuclear weapons test sites as well as Yucca Mountain, a potential national long-term storage facility for nuclear wastes. This web address will bring you to the State of Nevada, Office of the Governor, Agency for Nuclear Projects, Nuclear Waste Project Office. 

In the United States, permanent storage sites for high-level radioactive wastes win prohahly he deep underp-ound in rock formations. Shown is the kind of nuclear waste facility desired for Yucca Mountain, which would he a three-square-mile complex of interconnected tunnels located in dense volcanic rock 30 meters (1000 feet) beneath the mountain. 

Spent fuel will be stored on a permanent basis once a national repository is approved. The planned nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain is still involved in ongoing environmental impact studies. The opening of a national long-term storage site is over 12 years behind schedule because of opposition. 

Before Yucca Mountain can become the nuclear waste repository for the nation, a license must be issued by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Evaluation of the site for safe storage of high-level nuclear wastes for at least 10 000 years requires abroad spectrum of scientific disciplines. Mathematical models are developed to calculate the amount and type of radioactive materials that could be released into the environment due to different processes and events. 

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). 

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. 

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