Yucca Mountain

CONTENTS

THE WORLD'S LARGEST DIRTY BOMB?

 

Federal Res.

Jurisdiction

Links

Miscellaneous

Money

Parties

Taxes

"Worst case" of this and potentially any other underground nuclear waste storage facility is not slow leaks into the atmosphere or groundwater. Worst case is a catastrophic steam explosion that releases tons of deadly radioactive material into the atmosphere, and renders the land upon which it falls a dead zone for thousands of years.

SCENARIO
  1. Heavy rains saturate the porous material.
  2. An earth quake shock wave suddenly forces water from the porous material into the repository through existing and new faults.
  3. The water flashes into steam upon contact with the hot tunnel walls and the hot containers.
  4. The expanding steam blows the top off the repository, releasing the leaked radioactive air of the tunnels into the atmosphere.*
  5. The sudden cooling of the containers or the force of the explosion causes the containers to crack.
  6. The rising cloud of steam carries the radioactive particles high into the atmosphere.
  7. The steam condenses into water vapor.
  8. Winds laterally distribute the cloud.
  9. The radioactive dust particles "seed" the cloud, and precipitate as a deadly rain upon everything below.
* Just like ground water contacting hot lava blew the side from Mount Saint Helens.
* Just like water from the hot reactor core blew the top from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

ALTERNATIVES
  • Store on surface in pools - Current method
    • Pros
      • Allows the heat from radioactive decay to be slowly released through the container walls to the surrounding water and thence into atmosphere as water vapor.
      • Allows the containers to be easily monitored and replaced.
    • Cons
      • Requires a lot of real estate, because the containers must be widely separated to allow thermal convection to work fast enough to avoid boiling the water.
      • Proper water levels must be maintained for thousands of years.
      • Both water level and containers require human monitoring. Should a pandemic or economic collapse occur during that period, the monitoring may cease.
      • Susceptible to catastrophic damage by accidental or intentional plane crash.
      • Susceptible to rocket or projectile attack.
  • Intern in basalt
    • Containers placed below existing lava flows, like those off the coast of the island of Hawaii or the newest island south of the chain must be able to withstand extreme temperature distributions during their burial by layers of lava.
  • Recycle
    • Reprocess into nuclear fuel or other useful products.
      • Not yet technically or economically viable.
    • Launch into the Sun
      • Too expensive to lift such heavy material to Earth orbit much less beyond.
      • Too dangerous should any of a vast number of potential technical and material failures occur during the boost phase.
    • Position for subduction into the core of the Earth - Unfairly dismissed by environmentalists 20 years ago
      • Dangerous only during the brief plunge to the ocean floor during which the container would be kept cool by the ocean water.
      • Momentum will drive the container deep into the thick, cold, water-saturated sediment, which cools the container by thermal conduction.
      • Containers can be widely separated to avoid thermal concentration.
      • Any leaks are safely contained by the sediment while the container is slowly dragged with the sediment to below the mantel, where all the material melts and the heaviest (nuclear) sinks to the core.

ADVOCACY

Copy and paste one of the following into your favorite word processor, modify it, and send it to your local newspaper and radio and television stations, your U.S. federal government Representative and Senators, and the heads of neighboring states that would be affected by a Yucca Mountain explosion.

Letter (Should be less than 150 words)

The U.S. federal government is building the world's largest dirty bomb at Yucca Mountain where over 77,000 tons of plutonium, uranium, and other radioactive materials are to be stored in 392 degree F casks in tunnels that will be hot enough to evaporate minor leaks. The layer of porous rock above the tunnels is advertised as beneficial, but it can hold large quantities of water after heavy rains. Two earthquake faults intersect both the porous layer and the planned tunnels. If an earthquake were to occur, Yucca Mountain could experience a steam explosion similar to Mt. St. Helens, but with deadly fallout as dust and rain.

Nuclear power can be beneficial, but not with underground storage systems. Basalt internment or recycling into the Earth's core along subduction zones are safer and less expensive methods. See political-resources.com/ym/.

Article (Should be less than 500 words)

A potential major disaster exists in the U.S. plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

1. A few hundred feet above the tunnels is a layer of porous rock that can absorb water like a sponge during the rainy season.

2. The tunnels are cut by two earthquake faults, the Bow Ridge and the Ghost Dance.

3. Spent fuel rods enter the casks at about 500 degrees F (DOE admits to 392 degrees F) - and remain hot for a long time.

4. An earthquake damaged the DOE office at Yucca Mountain in 1992. What if it happened when the porous rock layer was saturated?

An earthquake occurring after a period of heavy rain may force a large quantity of water from the relatively weak porous layer into the tunnels via the two fault zones. Once in the tunnels, the water will flash to steam, the mountain will explode, and any leaked radiation will be carried by the steam into the atmosphere. (Mt. St. Helens was a steam explosion.) If the containers rupture, the steam could contain up to 77,000 tons of plutonium, uranium, thorium and other radioactive metals.

Southern Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, southern California and New Mexico would become death zones. Florida would be too close for safety. If it happened during a Santa Ana wind, all of Southern California would become a death zone.

Think the Department of Energy (DOE) doesn't know? Letters from one government agency to another discuss bribes allegedly being paid to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors by the DOE to approve the various stages of Yucca Mountain "... without asking any more technical questions." The alleged bribes were as high as $22 million dollars. You may have heard of the data falsification by United States Geological Surveys (USGS) personnel last year, but you may have not yet heard about this activity.

See political-resources.com/ym/.