239
waste, such as financial payouts, new infrastructure, etc. There is still an opportunity to do this, but the cost is likely to be quite a bit steeper.
2. Build the facility using local companies and contractors. DOE typically contracts with the so-called “beltway bandits” in Washington, D.C.; large companies
with three-letter acronyms for names located around the Capital Beltway that
thrive on Department of Defense and other government contract work. These
organizations were in fact brought in for most of the Yucca Mountain site characterization studies, which created resentment among local engineering and
natural resource companies. For the construction of the repository, a strong effort
should be made to recruit local talent, including skilled miners who worked both
surface and underground mines in the Nevada gold industry, as well as a variety
of trade and construction workers who built up Las Vegas over the past few
decades. Tapping into this talent pool for jobs will create much more support for
the repository than contracting the work out to big companies in D.C.
3. Designate and design Yucca Mountain as a “monitored, retrievable storage”
facility instead of a permanent high-level radioactive waste repository. The classification as “permanent” runs into all sorts of regulatory hurdles, some of which
are still unsettled, in terms of how radionuclides are stored and how long they
have to be kept out of the accessible environment. Current options for storage
duration requirements range from 10,000 years to a million years. Depending on
which one of these is selected, the engineering designs are very different.
Monitored retrievable storage is much less onerous from a regulatory standpoint,
and allows any canisters that are corroding or damaged to be identified, recovered and repaired. In the event that a “perfect” site for a permanent repository is
eventually found (on the moon, perhaps, where there is no water to corrode canisters and no environment to contaminate) the waste can be recovered, removed
and transported to the new location.
4. Figure out a workable transportation option. Getting high-level nuclear waste out
of the powerplants, which are mostly in the eastern U.S. to Yucca Mountain in
the west runs into a host of logistical problems that would probably be similar for
any remote site. Highways and railroads are both designed to connect population
centers like cities together. Therefore, any long distance transport of the waste by
truck or train will eventually have to pass through populated areas, even if
“bypass” routes are followed. Some of these are cities like Flagstaff, Arizona,
sitting astride a major coast-to-coast highway and a major east-west railroad
line, which has declared itself to be a “nuclear free zone” to block the transit of
radioactive waste. Once a waste transport truck does get to Nevada, the only road
that passes near Yucca Mountain is U.S. 95, a two-lane highway at that point.
There are no existing railroads near Yucca Mountain at all, and a long rail spur
would have to be built from Las Vegas or possibly Caliente to reach it. Any
nuclear waste passing through Las Vegas by train would follow the rail line adjacent to the Strip, which is not going to please the owners of fancy Las Vegas
resorts. The construction of either an improved highway or a rail extension to
Yucca Mountain will be very expensive.
12.1 Technological Solutions
waste, such as financial payouts, new infrastructure, etc. There is still an opportunity to do this, but the cost is likely to be quite a bit steeper.
2. Build the facility using local companies and contractors. DOE typically contracts with the so-called “beltway bandits” in Washington, D.C.; large companies
with three-letter acronyms for names located around the Capital Beltway that
thrive on Department of Defense and other government contract work. These
organizations were in fact brought in for most of the Yucca Mountain site characterization studies, which created resentment among local engineering and
natural resource companies. For the construction of the repository, a strong effort
should be made to recruit local talent, including skilled miners who worked both
surface and underground mines in the Nevada gold industry, as well as a variety
of trade and construction workers who built up Las Vegas over the past few
decades. Tapping into this talent pool for jobs will create much more support for
the repository than contracting the work out to big companies in D.C.
3. Designate and design Yucca Mountain as a “monitored, retrievable storage”
facility instead of a permanent high-level radioactive waste repository. The classification as “permanent” runs into all sorts of regulatory hurdles, some of which
are still unsettled, in terms of how radionuclides are stored and how long they
have to be kept out of the accessible environment. Current options for storage
duration requirements range from 10,000 years to a million years. Depending on
which one of these is selected, the engineering designs are very different.
Monitored retrievable storage is much less onerous from a regulatory standpoint,
and allows any canisters that are corroding or damaged to be identified, recovered and repaired. In the event that a “perfect” site for a permanent repository is
eventually found (on the moon, perhaps, where there is no water to corrode canisters and no environment to contaminate) the waste can be recovered, removed
and transported to the new location.
4. Figure out a workable transportation option. Getting high-level nuclear waste out
of the powerplants, which are mostly in the eastern U.S. to Yucca Mountain in
the west runs into a host of logistical problems that would probably be similar for
any remote site. Highways and railroads are both designed to connect population
centers like cities together. Therefore, any long distance transport of the waste by
truck or train will eventually have to pass through populated areas, even if
“bypass” routes are followed. Some of these are cities like Flagstaff, Arizona,
sitting astride a major coast-to-coast highway and a major east-west railroad
line, which has declared itself to be a “nuclear free zone” to block the transit of
radioactive waste. Once a waste transport truck does get to Nevada, the only road
that passes near Yucca Mountain is U.S. 95, a two-lane highway at that point.
There are no existing railroads near Yucca Mountain at all, and a long rail spur
would have to be built from Las Vegas or possibly Caliente to reach it. Any
nuclear waste passing through Las Vegas by train would follow the rail line adjacent to the Strip, which is not going to please the owners of fancy Las Vegas
resorts. The construction of either an improved highway or a rail extension to
Yucca Mountain will be very expensive.
12.1 Technological Solutions