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?
Where Was All The Nuclear Waste Supposed To Go?
At one time, there was supposed to be such “safe” and permanent a site literally 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 fact, 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 it and maintain it. The total cost has likely doubled or tripled since then because of skyrocketing inflation alone.
