USDOE Problems With [Not] Storing Nuclear Waste

Boulder, Colorado, USA — The scientific community can now take a long-awaited look at the research behind the selection of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the nation’s high-level radioactive waste repository.

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Thanks to Harold at the Ontario-geofish blog, I came accross this AP article that releases the first Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository cost estimate update since 2001. The US DOE now puts the cost of the facility at $90 billion, up $32 billion from that 2001 estimate. Of course that estimate is slightly deceptive. It covers the $9 billion already spent and 100 years of operation. Perhaps the bigger issue is funding has not been secured largely in part to the efforts of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat-NV). If a steady stream of money can be secured, the best case scenario for the facility is a 2020 opening. 

I also found a neat blog called Yucca Facts that has a refreshing perspective on the facility that is pro-science if not necessarily pro-Yucca. They also have a commentary about this latest DOE announcement and some commentary on Senator Reid.

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Ground penetrating radar (GPR) imaging of the subsurface tied to GPS mapping will allow the CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company to have a better idea of what is buried at the site before excavating for […]