Yucca Mountain on fast track, with new "less strict" EPA standards?

[rumpel]

Nuclear Waste Dump Timeline Is Updated

The nominee for Energy secretary expects the department to apply this year for a license to open the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada.

LAS VEGAS — The Energy Department intends to submit a license application by the end of the year to open a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada, more than a year later than planned, according to President Bush's nominee to head the department.

snip

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the energy committee, said the department also needed time to respond to a federal court ruling in July that threw out a crucial Environmental Protection Agency radiation health safety standard.

For the Yucca project to go forward, the EPA must set a new standard or Congress could consider a law creating a less strict radiation standard than one recommended by the National Academy of Sciences.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, would work to block such a law, Domenici said.

Energy Department officials have said they plan to announce a new Yucca Mountain project timeline next month.

Snip
Bodman, who also has served as deputy secretary of the Commerce Department, spent 31 years in the private sector. He worked at Fidelity Investments and Cabot Corp., an international chemical company. He is a chemical engineer and a former professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-yucca27jan27,1,2726335.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[blondeatlast]

1. Nevada--here's your big White House thanks for going red! nt

[dusty64]

9. I don't really believe they

went "red", but w/ their putrid rethug controlled government any and all attempts to learn the truth were blocked and stonewalled. Nevada went blue!

[cali]

2. OK, I understand that people are opposed

to Yucca Mountain, and I don't know enough about it to comment, but what are we supposed to do with Nuclear waste??

[City Lights]

3. Dump it in Crawford, Texas. n/t

[MadHound]

4. Stop creating it would be a start

And much much safer methods of storing the waste could be developed. Dumping the waste into Yucca Mountain is just asking for massive problems. A little known groundwater study showed that radioactive material could go from Yucca Mt., through the groundwater system, winding up in Las Vegas drinking water in as little as two weeks.

Time for all of those who live in Vegas to leave, I certainly would.

[cali]

5. I agree about reducing the amount of waste

but not only is that not going to happen, but it doesn't take into account all the shit currently being stored in dangerous and insecure facilities. You mention that much safer methods could be developed. What are they? How long would it take?

[MadHound]

7. Well the main thing that I'm thinking of is developing containers

That are much more stable, much more leak resistant, and much less effected by the elements. The current method is big, steel barrels. And while these barrels are painted, they will rust over time and degrade. Before you know it, you've got leakage.

And yes, we need to desperately cut back on our nuclear waste, soon. At the current rate of waste production, Yucca Mt. will be filled within a few decades. That will accelerate if this misadministration and it's corporate cronies get their way and start building more nuke plants. Also, this waste figure doesn't take into the waste that is going to be produced by the decommissioning of many of our first and second generation reactors in the next few years.

That we continue to rely on this and other toxic technologies is something that continues to baffle me. I believe that we are the only species on Earth that lives in its own waste, yet here we are. And sad to say, our waste isn't benign as other species waste, it is downright deadly.

[genius]

6. Thank you Howard Dean for the radioactive food and water

To those who don't remember, Dean as governor of Vermont worked hard to get Congress to back Yucca Mountain.

[cali]

8. ah, yes

at it again. The evil dean, personally responsible for all the nuclear waste in the country, poisoning our food and water while we sleep. Funny, I don't remember him "working hard" to get Congress to pass Yucca mountain. Yes, he supported it while Governor. He doesn't now. You do realize that people can be corroded by irrational hatred, don't you?