Although they are nearly at the final depth, the work thus far has been primarily to construct the 4-km long access tunnel. The facility is not scheduled to accept the nuclear waste until 2020 but once it does, it will have enough space for about 7 reactor’s worth of spent fuel for 100-years of their operation. That would put final sealing of the facility in 2120. One interesting thing that caught my attention is that according to Posiva, the agency responsible for facility, after 500 years the radiation dose standing next to one of the canisters would be equivalent to a CAT Scan. [Source: hs.fi via Ontario-geofish]
Rockman's Ramblings
Indefinite “Temporary” Nuclear Waste Storage and the Need for Nuclear Power
Since the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository has gotten the axe from President Obama, nuclear power plants around the country are faced with the prospect of virtually indefinite "temporary" storage of their nuclear waste in the form of spent fuel rods. The US Department of Energy has a legal obligation to find a permanent disposal facility for the spent fuel, and the agreements currently in place presumed that Yucca Mountain would be accepting nuclear waste by 2025 which clearly won’t happen. (Photo of dry cask temporary storage method for spent nuclear fuel from Connecticut Yankee). More after the break. […]
Press Releases
Yucca Mountain Moving Forward
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission – No. 08-106 – June 3, 2008
NRC RECEIVES DOE’S LICENSE APPLICATION TO CONSTRUCT HIGH-LEVEL NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY AT YUCCA MOUNTAIN
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received an application today from the U.S. Department of Energy for a license to construct the nation’s first geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
“We are ready to get to work on this challenging review,†said NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein. “Congress has given the NRC a strict timetable for reviewing this application, and I want to assure the American people that we will perform an independent, rigorous and thorough examination to determine whether the repository can safely house the nation’s high-level waste. The NRC’s licensing decision will be based entirely on the technical merits.†[Editor] Read on for the rest of the press release [/Editor]
Geologic Hazards
Radioactive Waste Storage in Boreholes
On the Radwaste blog by Geoff, I read about Borehole Disposal of Sealed Radioactive Sources or BOSS. This technology, which is explained by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) consists of disposal of smaller quantities of radioactive waste in specially engineered boreholes 30 to 100-m (approx. 100 to 330-ft) deep in suitable geologic media. Read on for more info. (Diagram by IAEA)