The USA is the world's largest producer of nuclear power, accounting for more than 30% of worldwide nuclear generation of electricity.
A single uranium fuel pellet contains the same amount of energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal or 149 gallons of oil.
In response to growing concerns over nuclear waste storage, Congress passed the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982.
The U.S. first began using nuclear power to produce electricity in 1957.
The amount of electricity produced by a multi-reactor nuclear power plant would require about 45 square miles of photovoltaic panels or about 260 square miles of wind turbines.
The intended method for providing long-term isolation of spent nuclear fuel in the U.S. and most other countries is mined geologic disposal.
As of May 2016, 30 countries worldwide are operating 444 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 63 new nuclear plants are under construction in 15 countries.
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Waste of a Mountain
How Yucca Mountain Was Selected, Studied, and Dumped
Waste of a Mountain presents the story of the effort to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
The book also describes the history of the United States government’s actions that created the first-ever quantity of high-level radioactive waste and then managed it while the government developed the means, and completed the effort, to identify the approach and location to permanently dispose of that waste. It covers a time frame of more than seventy years and describes the nation’s journey through technically complicated, and societally and politically treacherous territories to unearth and implement the capability to dispose of high-level radioactive waste.
The book presents the extensive story of the Yucca Mountain siting effort in a manner that reflects a perspective from inside the project.All proceeds from the sale of the book have been donated to the Museum and will support the Yucca Mountain exhibits at the Museum.
$100 (shipping + $15)
Contact the Museum at:
pahrumpmuseum@att.net or 775-751-1970
NEWS
September 3, 2017
On opposing sides...
In reality, plans to open a long-term nuclear waste storage facility in the mountains in Nye County just 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas have only ever been mostly dead, despite the fact that an abandoned tunnel surrounded by a chain link fence is all Yucca amounts to today.
August 10, 2017
Yucca Mtn hearings approach as NRC tells staff to prepare
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has directed its staff to begin a process that would be necessary to eventually resume work towards the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
August 2, 2017
Attempts to block funding for Yucca Mountain die in House
A series of amendments to block funding to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository died in the U.S. House of Representatives and were not included in a four-bill, $800 billion spending package last week.
August 2, 2017
Trump's Energy Agenda is Plowing Ahead as Other Initiatives Stall
President Donald Trump may be fuming over Republicans' failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, but he can certainly take solace in the GOP's swift overhaul of the Obama administration's energy and environmental agenda.
August 1, 2017
Interior Secretary May Be The Key To Opening Yucca Mountain
“Downsizing of the monument would be a good thing as it would increase Yucca Mountain transportation options,” Lake Barrett, former deputy director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
July 14, 2017
Dangerous Cargo Moving Through Nevada
As the debate over Yucca Mountain heats up once again, so does the objection from most of Nevada's top political brass. It's been a hot-button issue over the years with state leaders objecting strongly over safety concerns...
July 22, 2017
Air Force Chief Objects to Yucca Mountain Nuclear Routes
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson sees a need to protect the space frontier and envisions bolstering the ranks of drone warfare all while preserving the vast Southern Nevada range that shrinks as fighter jets zip faster across it.
July 20, 2017
Edward Davis, USNIC: Senate kicks the can down the road again on Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste stalemate
Edward Davis, former President of the American Nuclear Council, Senior Fellow, Nuclear Infrastructure Council.
July 18, 2017
Senate panel OKs spending bill without funds for restarting
A Senate subcommittee approved a spending bill Tuesday that does not include the Trump administration’s request for $120 million to restart the nuclear licensing at Yucca Mountain in Nevada or explore temporary storage of a stockpile of waste.
July 7, 2017
Nevada Adds More Money to Fight Yucca Mountain Project
The contract extension increases the funding from $300,000 and extends it to Sept. 30, 2018. Despite the project being pronounced dead during the Obama administration, Sandoval said the fight is needed because the Yucca project continues to see support in Congress.
July 2, 2017
Radioactive Waste - Ocean View
and Nowhere to Go
The massive, 150-ton turbines have stopped spinning. The mile-long cooling pipes that extend into the Pacific will likely become undersea relics. High voltage that once energized the homes of more than a million Californians is down to zero.
June 30, 2017
Scientists prepare to debate danger of Yucca Mountain’s volcanic neighbors
A renewed push to bury the nation’s most dangerous nuclear waste northwest of Las Vegas could hinge on competing scientific theories about the hazards of nearby volcanoes.
June 28, 2017
Getting the Nation’s Nuclear Waste Disposal Back on Track
For decades nuclear power has played an important role in generating electricity throughout the country, by accounting for nearly 20 percent of all electricity generated across the United States over the past 30 years.
June 28, 2017
ICYMI
The Energy and Commerce Committee today will vote on the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017. H.R. 3053 provides reforms to the nation’s nuclear waste management policy to ensure the federal gov’s legal obligations to dispose of spent nuclear fuel.
June 27, 2017
Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition
As evidenced by the discussions during the markup of the bill by the Subcommittee on the Environment on June 15th, your Members are not only well aware of the nation’s need to resolve the nuclear waste management dilemma; they are willing to take action!
June 26, 2017
U.S. must better manage nuclear waste storage
“For too long, Texans have paid the federal government and gotten nothing in return when it comes to nuclear power. We are committed to getting our nuclear waste management responsibilities back on track.”
June 15, 2017
Subcommittee passes bill to make Yucca Mountain the U.S. nuclear repository
Despite Nevada protests against it, a measure to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste repository advanced in a congressional subcommittee Thursday morning.
June 15, 2017
Nevada sues Texas for trying to kick-start Yucca Mountain
Nevada wants a federal appeals court to dismiss a bid by the state of Texas to kick-start government funding and licensing for a long-fought plan to entomb the nation's most radioactive waste in the desert outside Las Vegas.
Congressman Joe Barton
Chairman of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce since 2004, with principal House responsibility over matters relating to energy, commerce, public health and marketplace interests. Barton is currently the senior Republican and serves as Vice Chairman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee.
About This Website
About Yucca Mountain
Project Overview
This website is offered in order to shed light on the Yucca Mountain effort. First, we believe it is important to present factual information on Yucca Mountain, as opponents have made every effort to disassemble and erase its outstanding research record from the pages of history since the Obama Administration terminated the project in 2011.
Second, Yucca Mountain represents feats of engineering and scientific prowess that need to be more widely recognized. The facts need to be told.
And . . . the United States still needs a safe place to store its high-level nuclear waste.
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, located on a piece of land adjoining the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, was designed to be a deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and other high- level radioactive waste, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987.
The United States currently obtains about 20 percent of its commercial electricity from nuclear energy. Waste from the more than 60 commercial nuclear power plants operating across the country is accumulating at the rate of about 2,000 tons per year. Approximately 65,000 tons are currently in temporary storage at the sites where it was produced.
In 1987, Congress singled out Yucca Mountain, located in Nye County, Nevada, adjoining the Nevada Test Site, as the site for intensive study of long-term storage of high-level nuclear waste.
As of 2011, the nation has spent as much as $15 billion on finding a permanent storage site for its high-level nuclear waste, some $9 billion on Yucca Mountain alone. Hundreds of men and women worked on the study of Yucca Mountain for decades, including some of the best scientists in the world.
In 2011, as a result of political maneuvering, funding on Yucca Mountain and the search for a permanent storage site for high-level nuclear waste came to a halt.
Yet in 2014, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared that high-level nuclear waste could be safely stored at Yucca Mountain for at least 1 million years.
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