Flaw Is Found in Plan to Bury Nuclear Waste

[Khephra]

The Energy Department's design for burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, near Las Vegas, would cause corrosion that would perforate the waste containers and allow leaks, an expert panel is preparing to advise the department.

Nuclear waste gives off heat as well as radiation, and the Energy Department is considering taking advantage of that, by spacing the waste containers closely. That would heat the tunnels to nearly 300 degrees Fahrenheit in the first few decades, a factor that, the department says, would keep the metal dry and thus prevent corrosion.

But the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a panel created by Congress to advise the department, believes otherwise, according to a letter the members have drafted. Members said changes to the letter were possible before it is submitted to the department, but the draft, circulated on Monday, said two new sets of laboratory tests "cast doubt on the extent to which the waste package will be an effective barrier under the repository conditions that have been presented to the board."

One board member, Thure E. Cerling, a professor of biology and of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah, said that the problem was that "most reactions take place faster at higher temperatures," and that this included rust.

more...........

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/21/politics/21NUKE.html

[tlcandie]

1. This admin does NOT care ...

period. There is no justice, no balance, no future thought because they are leaving this world via the rapture and leaving the rest of us with this mess. That is in their minds of course. They do not understand the connectedness. They are separated in their own minds just like several other religious peoples.

Disconnect is the issue for everything that is happening in this world today and this admin will never address that issue.

[gWbush is Mabus]

2. I'm sure * can manipulate the science

[dfong63]

9. every administration has "manipulated the science" on yucca mtn

[TankLV]

14. Bullshit. Only the REPUKES have.

The previous dem administrations tried to halt the construction ACTIVELY and ENCOURAGED REAL SCIENCE - only the repukes in congress and repuke pResidents CHANGED the STANDARDS that the LAW requires it to be designed to.

Stop pedddling your crap as truth.

[demdave]

3. This should be easy to test......water, salt, container and an oven

This doesn't sound like a very difficult lab to setup. I'll have the results in a few weeks.

[MrBenchley]

4. So lets see...

The plan sticks the taxpapyer with the liability of moving it and storing this stuff for the next 120,000 years..

The storage site is located in an earthquake zone that ALSO happens to have a volcano that ALSO sits on an aquifer serving three states.

And now we find the design LEAKS?

[pansypoo53219]

6. yup

nuclear power is the way to go.
made that point to family when ANYBODY says Nuke is cheap.
what about the waste???

[BeFree]

11. ayup

As the saying goes: "If the Romans had had a nuclear power program, we'd all be dealing with the waste today."

This irresponsible action of ours - foisting our pollution on our children - is as anti-human as anything we could ever do. Better that we just quit using reactors until we can get rid of the waste safely in our lifetimes.

[dArKeR]

5. Crawford TX sounds like a good place for it.

[Guaranteed]

8. Seriously. n/t

[Flying_Pig]

7. Let me tell you, as a person who was poisoned by nuclear

weapons testing in Nevada years ago, and who has fought life-long battles with cancer and other medical problems because of it, and one who has watched entire families killed off from this poisoning:

YOU CAN'T BELIEVE A FUCKING WORD THE GOVERNMENT SAYS WHEN IT COMES TO NUCLEAR ISSUES

In fact, as we've learned, we can't trust them to give us the truth about a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g!

:grr:

[Tikki]

10. You CAN'T believe a..

....fucking word the government says when it comes to NUCLEAR ISSUES....

This sentence MUST be driven into the brains of all Americans...

...not, just, those who will be the 'guinea pigs' by their unfortunate proximity to nuclear waste and nuclear poisons released into the environment.

Like Flying_Pig, we watched (tea-tottlin', non smoking, healthy living) family members die from postrate cancers, thyroid cancers, lung cancers, leukemia, the list goes on and on.... or live with a myriad of associative diseases and syndromes because of the devastating effects of radiation releases into the air, into the ground or ground waters ..... DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME THESE DISEASES ARE NORMAL IN POPULATIONS.....THEY ARE NOT.. NOT AT THE LEVELS THIS COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES...

Our poisons....(among the 200 radionuclides irresponsibly released by our government)....iodine 131, lethal doses of cesium, strontium-90..

Our 'killing field'...Hanford Nuclear Works......

The Tikkis

[donsu]

12. kick

nt

[MadHound]

13. I would kindly suggest to anybody whose is close to or. . .

Served by the aquifer under Yucca Mt. to move, now. First off, they're already quietly shipping waste to Yucca Mt. Secondly, in addition to the previously mentioned teutonic unstability of the place, add in the fact that there are already cracks in the storage caves that lead right down to the aquifer. I forget my source, but there was a study done a year or two ago where dye was injected into these cracks. The dye showed up in the Las Vegas water supply three days later.

And this isn't just the heat, water, salt equation we're dealing with in regards to corrosiveness. We're also talking about a witches brew of acids(hydrochoric and nitric being the most prevalent), bases, and outright toxins. Combine this with the fact that the most prevalent metals in the place will be the toxic heavy metals(lead, uranium, plutonium) and this whole complex is nothing but a vast deadly time bomb waiting to go off.

There is no current way to safely dispose of nuclear waste for the long term. It can't be buried, burned or dumped in the ocean without having a major negative impact on the surrounding enviroment. For these reasons we have shut down the plants we have(and don't get me started on the ticking timebombs these old plants are), and refuse to build any new ones. The only good that comes out of nuclear plants are the radiation treatments for cancer, and the invaluable aid to archeaology nuke plants provide. But as far as using them for power production goes, it is simply a game of Russian roulette, and the gun is pointed at all of us.