Can We Revisit Yucca Mountain?
In light of the Fukushima Daiichi plant catastrophe in Japan, leading nuclear experts are rethinking the safety and viability of the storage of spent nuclear fuel in cooling water pools. A recently released MIT study recommends that we rethink the entire spent-fuel management system. Conclusions drawn by these experts argue that dry cask storage is the safest and most reliable system to deal with the nuclear waste. Which begs the questions, where to put it?
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Fuel Repository has been studied exhaustively over a number of years. Leading scientists, geologists, and engineers have concluded that it is not only a viable site, but the best site yet identified for a federal storage facility. The biggest stumbling block is that it is less than 100 miles from Las Vegas, and a very effective lobbying campaign (along with Senator Harry Reid) have derailed progress. In fact President Obama has ordered the Department of Energy to shelve the project.
Living in Vermont, which has its own aging nuclear reactor, I can attest that storage of spent nuclear fuel is a very hot button issue. Nuclear reactors were “sold” to states like Vermont with the promise that there would be a national solution to the issue of storage of spent nuclear fuel. For nearly forty years, this promise has gone unfulfilled. It’s time to throw off the politics and move forward with a practical long-range plan for addressing our nuclear waste problem. It won’t go away simply because we choose to ignore it.
