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Decommissioning costs: A blind spot in the nuclear power debate
August 30, 2016
What happens to nuclear power plants when they retire and decommission. Specifically, how Americans like you and I will continue to pay more and be subjected to greater risks as nuclear power plants are converted to interim waste storage facilities. Read More...
Current Events
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US Department of Energy
Yucca Mountain: The Making of an Underground Laboratory
Watch this 5 part video series describing how and why the nuclear waste repository laboratory was built into Yucca Mountain
More from the DOE about the Yucca Mountain Project
See If Your Next-Door Neighbor Is a Toxic Dump
An interactive map created by media artist Brooke Singer shows the 1,300-plus toxic sites scattered across the US.
Using data collected from the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, the map identifies where the agency has set up Superfund sites, where uncontrolled hazardous waste remains in the environment.
Dots in warm colors on the map represent the toxic sites scattered around the nation. The dots range in hue depending on the severity of a site’s hazardous ranking score, with red signaling a high score while dull yellow represents a low one.
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Nevada stakeholders voice input on Yucca Mountain nuclear disposal site
Hearing on “Federal, State, and Local Agreements and Economic Benefits for Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal,” Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy (July 7, 2016)
In a hearing held last week on “Federal, State and Local Agreements and Economic Benefits for Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal,” the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Environment and the Economy Subcommittee heard statements from Nevada stakeholders concerning a repository for spent nuclear fuel at the Yucca Mountain site.
“Nevadans deserve to have honest brokers in their federal government, and they deserve to hear the unbiased, scientific results that all of their hard-earned dollars funded,” U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy (R-NV) said.
Testimonies at the hearing discussed the impact of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the adequacy of funding provided to the state of Nevada and future infrastructure needs connected to the disposal facility. Read more...
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.
DOE legal obligation on Yucca Mountain
August 9, 2016
The US Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) has urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to pursue the completion of the licensing review for the Yucca Mountain used fuel and nuclear waste disposal facility, saying the consent-based siting process proposed by the department cannot legally substitute for the Nevada project. Read More...
Heller predicts new move to build Yucca Mountain after Reid retires
August 18, 2016
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller thinks there will be a new effort to kick-start the Yucca Mountain Project after one of its most powerful and outspoken opponents, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, leaves office at the end of the year.
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.
YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT
