The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, more commonly known simply as Yucca Mountain, is located in Nevada near the border with California. Nuclear power has long been a priority for the United States, as it provides us with a high powered form of energy which is relatively easy and cost efficient to maintain. A major problem with nuclear energy is how to deal with the fuel rods, which conduct the reactions creating the energy in the main reactors, once they become used up, or spent. Spent fuel rod disposal poses such a difficulty because they remain radioactive for vast durations of time, in many cases for over 1 million years. In the event that somebody from a later generation would stumble upon the repository and not be aware of it’s contents, it could not only cause a great deal of pain and suffering for the person who discovered it, but it could release radioactive toxins into the air, harming anyone near the point of release. This reason is exactly why I believe Yucca Mountain is the most logical choice as to where and how the nuclear waste should be stored. Yucca Mountain is a highly secure facility which is deeply embedded in the rock structure underneath a massive valley with no civilization in sight. The possibility of somebody stumbling across the facility in essentially the middle of nowhere are very slim, and in the event some explorer would discover it, there are warnings and depictive symbols placed all around the entrance to designate it as a site with major consequences should it be entered without taking the proper precautions. Another main point the opposition to the Yucca Mountain facility brings up when arguing for the continued closure of the facility is that the air around the facility will be polluted with radioactive material, which, if potent enough, could have major health effects on anybody in the near vicinity. However, this topic has been studied in great detail, and the findings show that the dose of radiation which inhabitants of nearby areas would be exposed to after 10,000 years of operation would still be over 100 times less than what somebody is exposed to while getting a simple medical procedure such as a hip X ray. As if these facts aren’t reason enough to put public unrest over the issue of Yucca Mountain to bed, the United States Senate conducted a major study in 2006, which was detailed in a report titled “Yucca Mountain: The Most Studied Real Estate on the Planet”. The paper was extensive, but reached several conclusions reinforcing the safety, security, and efficiency of Yucca Mountain. The conclusions stated, among other things, that the cost of not continuing on with the project would be immensely higher than simply operating the facility, nuclear waste disposal is a strong boost to national security, and that studies by geologists and environmentalists have proven that the facility is a safe environment to store radioactive material in, with little risk to the public who reside in surrounding areas for generations to come. A final reason which convinces me that Yucca Mountain repository needs to be reopened immediately is that the reason that it was closed down seems to be a very trivial and almost invalid. The federal government ceased funding the project in 2011, which is when it closed. The leader of the shutdown movement, and also the leader of the United States: President Obama, stated his reason for closing the facility was a politically motivated one, and not a choice based on security or safety concerns. Simply attempting to appease his environmentally conscious support group by closing the facility is an unacceptable reason to shut down a repository which could easily solve the ever pressing problem which is dealing with the waste produced from nuclear energy, which is only increasing and needs a permanent storage site immediately.
Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Entrance to the facilityhttp://tessasglobalissues.blogspot.com/p/unit-3.html: This link is to Tessa's blog post about the Svalbard seed vault
http://globalissuesblake.blogspot.com/p/unit-3.html Blake's post about American food waste was eye opening about the amount of glut our country truly has
http://globalissuescatherinholmes.blogspot.com/p/unit-three.html This is Catherin's post about the poor lunches being given to the students of our schools, and the nutritional hazards these meals create
Garrick, John B. "Yucca Mountain: Pro & Con." IEEE Spectrum. IEEE, Oct. 2002. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.
Rojstaczer, Stuart. "PRO / Yucca Mountain / Yucca Mountain: A Pragmatic Solution to Storing Nuclear Waste." SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 2002. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.
Farnham, Alan. "Nuclear Waste: Yucca Mountain Gets Reprieve As Storage Site." ABC News. ABC News Network, Aug. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.
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