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NUCLEAR
NEWS FOR LIFE
RADIATION |
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Nuclear waste in your backyard?
Navajo Hopi
Observer News 12-9-97
By Janel States
The Observer
Nuclear waste transport is a serious issue, one that merits careful and deliberate consideration. The passage of S. 104 and H.R. 1207 essentially ensure that nuclear waste transport will occur as soon as 2001, and, barring a presidential veto that is sustained, it is likely that nuclear waste will be shipped through Northern Arizona. But the transport of nuclear waste is only one part of an issue which is causing a great deal of concern.
Yucca Mountain, located 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas and only about 300 miles from the western edge of the Navajo Reservation, has been selected as the temporary holding site, and possibly as the permanent one, for over 95% of the nation's high level nuclear waste. But contention over the selection of Yucca Mountain as a storage facility continues to escalate.
Several options for nuclear waste storage have been considered over the years, including burying it in the ocean floor or in polar ice sheets, or sending it into space. So far, however, burying the waste has emerged as the preferred option for disposal. But the way Yucca Mountain was selected has caused an uprising among Nevadans. According to Bob Loux, director of the State of Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office, Yucca Mountain never underwent any scientific testing before it was designated as a temporary holding site. It was simply chosen.
As many as four young volcanoes and 33 earthquake faults exist in the Yucca Mountain area, and the Ghost Dance fault, suspected to be the primary fault, runs directly through the mountain itself. In an address to the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, Bill MacGavern of Public Citizen, a non-profit non-partisan consumer research and advocacy organization, said there were "621 seismic events of magnitude greater than 2.5 in the vicinity" of Yucca Mountain from 1976 to 1996. An earthquake which registered 5.6 occurred in 1992 a mere 12 miles from the proposed storage site. That quake originated from a previously unidentified fault. In fact, the earthquake damaged a Department of Energy (DOE) field office built for the Yucca Mountain project. The State of Nevada has expressed its concern that such a fault-ridden area, the extent of which has not been fully determined, would not be able to contain radioactive gas emissions.
Water contamination may also be a possibility, according John B. Davies and Charles Archambeau, physics research associates at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In a study commissioned by the State of Nevada, Davies and Archambeau noted that the water table below the site is quite low, approximately 1,500 feet. Six miles north of the site, however, the groundwater level rises to 600 feet, a difference which leads the scientists to believe that there are open fractures underneath Yucca Mountain. An earthquake of significant magnitude, they said, could close the fractures and push the water into the storage facility itself. Because nuclear waste is lethal for approximately 10,000 years, it is extremely important that it remain stable.
'If water hits the storage area it could cause a rapid corrosive breakdown of the containersand allow the plutonium to leak into the water table and the atmosphere,' Davies said.
One of Yucca Mountain's supposed advantages as a permanent nuclear waste storage site was an extremely slow downward movement of rainwater which would keep water away from the repository site for thousands of years. But so far, studies have shown otherwise. According to a report by Jeff Rubin of ABC News, scientists found that water, seeping through the cracks in Yucca Mountain, "took little more than four decades to seep down about 800 feet," which could lead to contamination. In addition, Yucca Mountain would also be home to defense wastes in the form of vitrified borosilicate glass. Some scientists have expressed the concern that "vitrified glass may disintegrate rapidly in conditions like those at Yucca Mountain, which may result in massive groundwater contamination," said MacGavern.
The plutonium contained in the defense wastes has sparked even greater concern. Public Citizen indicated that scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and scientists at the Department of Energy (DOE) facility at Savannah River, agree that "burying waste at Yucca Mountain could lead to a spontaneous atomic explosion, releasing radiation into the atmosphere and groundwater" if plutonium escapes from disposal canisters and comes into contact with the surrounding rock. There is also the threat of a "non-explosive reaction," or meltdown.
For these reasons, the state of Nevada, Public Citizen and others believe that Yucca Mountain may not be suitable for long-term storage. However, according to MacGavern, "[H.R. 1270] exempts from any environmental review the selection of the interim storage site, preparation and submittal of the license and application, and the construction and operation of any facility." In addition, H.R. 1270 sets a radiation exposure standard that is higher than any other approved by Congress, 100 millirems.
"Lifetime exposure to an annual dose of 100 millirems correlates to a cancer death risk of one in every 286 exposed individuals," said MacGavern. "...Cancer death risks of greater than one in a million are often considered unacceptable." H.R. 1270 also preempts the Safe Water Drinking Act; the EPA would not set a ground water protection standard for Yucca Mountain.
"It seems that those who have already decided that waste should be sent to Nevada will always try to change the standards to suit the site whenever confronted with the possibility that the site cannot meet the standards," he said.
The Department of Energy continues to study the Yucca Mountain area
and has yet to make any determination. The Office of Civilian Radioactive
Waste Management believes that the study will be completed by 1998, and
Yucca Mountain may be open for business in 2010. According to the Yucca
Mountain Project, an agency of the U.S. government, "The current schedule
in the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management program shows that
a viability assessment of Yucca Mountain will be prepared by 1998, and
the repository will start operations in 2010. If at any time DOE or the
teams of scientists discover the site to be unsuitable, they will stop
characterization activity, restore the area, and report to Congress within
six months on a recommended course of action."
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