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What is the current status of Yucca Mountain?
On The Ground Accomplishments: Today the Yucca Mountain site has been abandoned and nothing exists but a boarded up exploratory tunnel; there are no waste disposal tunnels, receiving and handling facilities, and the waste containers and transportation casks have yet to be developed.
Is Yucca Mountain still being used?
Delays since 2009. Starting in 2009, the Obama administration attempted to close the Yucca Mountain repository, despite current US law that designates Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository.
What is Yucca Mountain currently used for?
The Yucca Mountain repository is the proposed spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository where both types of radioactive waste could be disposed.
Why was Yucca Mountain stopped?
These issues include hydrology, inadequacy of the proposed waste package, repository design and volcanism. The Yucca site is seismically and volcanically active, porous and incapable of geologically containing the waste.
Will Yucca Mountain ever open?
DOE abandons 2017 opening date for Yucca Mountain, estimating that the facility will not be operational until 2020 at the earliest. DOE’s Yucca Mountain public internet database, the Licensing Support Network, is ruled complete.
Is Yucca Mountain currently being used to store nuclear waste?
Currently, most of the waste for which the Yucca Mountain repository was designed is stored throughout the country at commercial nuclear power plants; there is a smaller amount of the waste at Department of Energy facilities.
Is Yucca Mountain geologically stable?
Scientists are divided about the safety of the site. Although some studies suggest that Yucca Mountain has been geologically stable for thousands of years, others show a history of fairly recent volcanic activity and large earthquakes in the area.
Was Yucca Mountain Safe?
The government has spent billions of dollars planning for nuclear waste disposal, but the creation of a permanent storage site is years behind schedule due to federal mismanagement and safety concerns. A new report confirms that the current proposed site, Yucca Mountain in Nevada, is safe for use.