Nuclear Waste Is The Most Dangerous Homeless Problem In the United States
Did you know spent radioactive, toxic nuclear fuel remains dangerous for 100,000 years? Did you also know the United States has over approximately 111 million pounds of nuclear waste located across the country being produced with 92 nuclear reactors and no long-term dedicated and safe storage site for the waste that’s produced? Do you now wish you didn’t know that? Me too…
Where Was All The Nuclear Waste Supposed To Go?
At one time, there was supposed to be a “safe” and permanent site for nuclear waste inside (yes, inside!) of Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Located approximately 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in Nye County, the U.S. federal government (which technically still owns approximately 85% of all land in the state of Nevada) previously planned to use Yucca Mountain as a national repository for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel from civilian nuclear power plants around the country. In support of said plan, the United States previously spent over $13 billion to build the existing site, though estimates in 2008–2009 put the total cost at over $96 billion to complete and maintain it. The total cost has likely doubled or tripled since then because of skyrocketing inflation alone.
How Did Yucca Mountain Get Built?
Construction of the storage facility at Yucca Mountain commenced in 1994. And the facility that has been constructed so far is a five-mile-long tunnel that slopes inside of the mountain face, turns south for three miles and then slopes back up to the surface.
If you search online for depictions of Yucca Mountain, you will likely find a three-dimensional diagram that shows a long line at first burrowed into the mountain and then turning even deeper into the mountain. In the middle is another tunnel protruding back towards the face of the mountain. The other half of the line shows the line continue and turn back out into the face of the mountain. The line looks like an “E” inside of the mountain with the top line of the “E” being twice as long as the other lines protruding from it.
The facility was constructed using a twenty-five-foot-diameter, football-field-and-a-half-long tunnel boring machine (the “Boring Machine” also known as the “Yucca Mucker”), which was created specifically for the Yucca Mountain project. A second Boring Machine created a second tunnel that stretches approximately 1.7 miles. And just in case you didn’t know, boring machines were around for many decades before Elon Musk started to use them in The Boring Company.
Is Yucca Mountain Actually Safe?
While not specific to just Yucca Mountain as a potential storage facility, scientists have been and are continued to be forced to use geology to create a prediction of 10,000 years in the future. And although it is arid, Yucca Mountain has enough water to endanger the foundation of the site. Seismic, tectonic, and volcanic activity also occurs throughout the entire range where Yucca Mountain is located. (See Kathlyn T. Esther, “Nuclear Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada”).
So, the reality is that Yucca Mountain is probably not a safe long-term solution, but maybe nowhere really is “safe” because anything could happen.
What’s The Current Status of Yucca Mountain?
In the past 15 plus years, the political tide has mostly turned against Yucca Mountain as the long-term solution. In 2008, the Department of Energy submitted a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the “NRC”) seeking authorization to finalize the construction of the repository, but the NRC suspended its review.
Following various challenges, in 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the NRC to resume the statutory license review process unless Congress declares otherwise through legislation or until appropriated funds are depleted.
But there have been no new funds (federal or otherwise) appropriated since September 2010. This is primarily due to the significant hurdles, including strong opposition to the project from Nevadan citizens, Native American tribes, politicians and others. However, Trump’s prior Energy Secretary Rick Perry did push to have Yucca Mountain rebooted.
After seeking appropriations to restart licensing in their federal fiscal year 2018, 2019, and 2020 budget proposals, the prior Trump Administration dropped Yucca Mountain from its fiscal year 2021 budget request. Trump also said during his 2020 campaign that he opposed Yucca Mountain, very likely because Nevada is a key swing state.
The Biden Administration currently opposes Yucca Mountain as the national repository. With Nevada being such a key swing state in the federal election, it would be political suicide for any candidate to have a different or to ever change their tune on Yucca Mountain while they are campaigning. However, without a formal change by Congress to the 1987 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Yucca Mountain remains the designated permanent storage site for spent fuel rods from commercial nuclear plants.
But the likelihood that this much-needed permanent safe storage site for dangerous nuclear waste gets settled in my lifetime is extremely slim. So, this homeless nuclear waste problem that exists and will continue to exist for thousands of lifetimes will continue to be a problem for literally thousands of generations.
How Close Are Area 51 And Yucca Mountain?
Another “fun fact” about Yucca Mountain is that it is less than 75 miles from Area 51. How strange would it have been to have massive nuclear waste so close to one of the most secretive bases in the world? Was that purposeful or merely coincidence? This is one of the reasons why both Yucca Mountain and Area 51 are key settings in The Raffle Novel, because facts are often stranger than fiction.
