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Author Topic:   Yuca Mountain Nuclear Waste Depository
DBlevins
Member (Idle past 3776 days)
Posts: 652
From: Puyallup, WA.
Joined: 02-04-2003


Message 1 of 8 (197282)
04-06-2005 3:23 PM


{This topic was a spin-off from another topic. Please see message 2. - Adminnemooseus}
In trying to be focused within the topic, I wanted to expand some issues of Government "propoganda" as it related to democracy, freedom, but also of safety and the right to know. An issue that is coming to light again is President Bush's push to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mt. I had thought I heard inklings of this years ago, but it is again making the news. This is the faulty and fraudulent practices of at least one USGS employee who had conducted or assisted in research on the safety of Yucca Mt. for waste storage. While this might not fall under "fake news" used by the government I think it does indicate what I think is an attempt by our government and more recently this administration, to manipulate facts regardless of the safety of the U.S. public, for their own interest. This most certainly, in my view, is another sign of the erosion of our basic rights, as citizens of a democracy. While President Bush may not be directly involved in this blatant fraud, I personally think he is at the very least complacent in the happenings. He desires to have Yucca Mt. finalized as a storage sight and i'm sure there is a puch down the chain of command to "get it done." (I would add that there is probably a not so subtle "at any cost.") This fake or fraudelent information then doesn't just concern dealing in Iraq, or Social Security, or even Abstinence Programs, but issues at the heart of the safety of all generations. If we can expect that for the sake of national security certain rights are withdrawn or suppressed, is it that much difficult to expect our safety and the safety of future generations to be excluded for the same sake?
Here is a news report regarding Yucca Mt.
A democracy whose population is ignorant through complacencey or because of their government is no longer a democracy. The population that doesn't hold the government accountable for its actions loses it's right to belong to a democracy. (Paraphrase of a statement by Thomas Jefferson)
This message has been edited by DBlevins, 04-06-2005 05:55 AM
This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 04-06-2005 02:51 PM

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by Adminnemooseus, posted 04-06-2005 3:32 PM DBlevins has not replied
 Message 3 by Minnemooseus, posted 04-06-2005 3:39 PM DBlevins has not replied
 Message 4 by jar, posted 04-06-2005 4:02 PM DBlevins has not replied
 Message 7 by roxrkool, posted 04-06-2005 6:17 PM DBlevins has not replied

  
Adminnemooseus
Administrator
Posts: 3974
Joined: 09-26-2002


Message 2 of 8 (197284)
04-06-2005 3:32 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by DBlevins
04-06-2005 3:23 PM


This topic was originally message 25 of the "Is the Present Government Hurting U.S. Democracy with Fake News?" topic.
I felt that this issue is way too big and diverse to be part of that other thread, and thus deserved to be its own topic.
Adminnemooseus

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This message is a reply to:
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Minnemooseus
Member
Posts: 3941
From: Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. (West end of Lake Superior)
Joined: 11-11-2001
Member Rating: 10.0


Message 3 of 8 (197287)
04-06-2005 3:39 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by DBlevins
04-06-2005 3:23 PM


A "Piltdown Man" type issue?
I'm not up to a major reply here.
The storage/disposal of nuclear waste is a major problem. I may well be wrong, but I suspect that the anti-Yuca Mountain Depository types might be grasping at a "Piltdown Man" like straw here. A minor glitch in an otherwise solid research job.
The big question is, "If not Yuca Mountain, then where?".
Moose

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jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 4 of 8 (197293)
04-06-2005 4:02 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by DBlevins
04-06-2005 3:23 PM


I have a few questions for you.
Do the wastes they plan on storing at Yucca already exist?

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

This message is a reply to:
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Alexander
Inactive Member


Message 5 of 8 (197301)
04-06-2005 5:10 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by jar
04-06-2005 4:02 PM


Re: I have a few questions for you.
I think the plan is to consolidate all of the existing nucler byproducts at Yucca mountain. I don't recall ever reading about plans for future deposits. Sucks for nevada, but it's gotta go somewhere.

'Most temperate in the pleasures of the body, his passion was for glory only, and in that he was insatiable.'

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jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 6 of 8 (197303)
04-06-2005 5:15 PM
Reply to: Message 5 by Alexander
04-06-2005 5:10 PM


Re: I have a few questions for you.
So the wastes, at least a portion of them exist today.
Are the places they are currently stored such as SRP better suited or less suited than Yucca Mountain?

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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roxrkool
Member (Idle past 989 days)
Posts: 1497
From: Nevada
Joined: 03-23-2003


Message 7 of 8 (197318)
04-06-2005 6:17 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by DBlevins
04-06-2005 3:23 PM


I will be very interested to hear the results of the investigation into this scandal. I have to wonder if there was any 'pressure' by the current administration.
Many government employees have been 'strongly advised' to reword their scientific findings or suppress them entirely. If not, the reports never make it through the review process.
Additionally, this couldn't have come at a worse time for the USGS. The current administration is trying their damnest to dismantle portions of the USGS. This may be their ticket to do so...
This message has been edited by roxrkool, 04-06-2005 05:18 PM

This message is a reply to:
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Dr Cresswell
Inactive Member


Message 8 of 8 (197393)
04-07-2005 6:13 AM
Reply to: Message 6 by jar
04-06-2005 5:15 PM


Re: I have a few questions for you.
quote:
Are the places they are currently stored such as SRP better suited or less suited than Yucca Mountain?
I can't really speak to the US situation, but there has been a similar long-running deep storage issue here in the UK (for many years there's been invesigation into deep burial under the Sellafield site in Cumbria). At the moment in the UK waste generated during nuclear power generation is initially stored at the power plant to allow the very short lived activity to decay away until it's safe to transport - I assume that is true of all nuclear plants, the technical problems of safely transporting highly active nuclear waste are too high to do anything else. The waste is then transported to Sellafield where it is recycled (my understanding is that the US has no civil reprocessing programme, and even the military Pu extraction programme is currently non-operational). This results in a multi-stage storage programme - short term at site of production, medium term above ground at Sellafield, and long term .... well, nowhere at present.
Most nuclear power plants are unsuitable locations for even medium term (ie: 10-100 years) storage. There would need to be major construction at each site to build suitable buildings with adequate shielding for employees and the public. Longer term, most nuclear power plants are built on the coast or major rivers because of the need for cooling water - these are environments that are prone to erosion and so very few of these sites would be suitable for surface storage (which in the industry includes shallow burial, which is the norm as soil provides an effective radiation shield reducing the need for as substantial a construction job) for more than a few hundred years after power generation ceases.
Geological burial is the only realistic long term storage option. The difficulty really is in finding suitable locations where the geology includes non-porous rock (so that any leaks from the containers are contained within the store - though the use of vitrification technology is intended to prevent such leaks, at least large leaks) and historic geological stability to give confidence that there won't be any instability (eg: fractures or faulting) during the lifetime of the store (at least 10 000 years).
Of course, as well as geological issues there are also political issues. The biggest isn't actually related to the long-term safety of the store, which if there is a problem will be hundreds or thousands of years in the future which is of little concern to politicians with 4 year terms of office, but the transport of waste to the site. The biggest risk is in a spill during transport, and that transport will have to go close to residents near the site. That's why the UK government keeps on trying to put our long-term store at Sellafield - most of the waste is already there.

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