Yucca Mountain Discussion: Background Information

Yucca Mountain is the planned site of a massive nuclear waste dump. It is located in Nevada, approximately 100 miles Northwest of Las Vegas. Though you may not often hear about it in the news (especially if you live outside of Nevada), Yucca Mountain has been a hot topic in Congress for twenty-six years. The Las Vegas Review Journal provides excellent updated coverage of the Yucca Mountain Project. It is a very involved situation, but basically, the U.S. Department of Energy plans to use the site to bury at least seventy-seven thousand tons of radioactive waste. According to the LVRJ, the road to Yucca began in 1982 with the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which called for the construction of a national nuclear waste storage facility. In 1987, it was decided that Yucca Mountain would be the site of this facility. (You can see a timeline of milestones here.)
In 2002, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended Yucca as the disposal site for "the nation's most lethal nuclear waste." President Bush promptly approved the recommendation. Originally the repository was due to be complete by 1998, but forseeing an inability to meet that dealine, the government moved the completion date to 2010. Recently, even the 2010 deadline has been deemed unlikely to happen, as the license to build the facility has not been approved yet. At this point, the Energy Department has just submitted their application for a license to physically build the Yucca facility.
Prior to 2001, the Dept. of Energy had to prove that Yucca Mountain itself could safely contain radioactive waste; in 2001, they were given permission to use storage containers to contain the waste. There has been additional controversy over the issue of the containers themselves, such as their durability and how likely they are to corrode, what might happen in the event of an earthquake, etc. Needless to say, severe doubt has been cast upon the adequacy of these containers to prevent radioactive leakage. (The very idea that at any point, the government was going to consider storing the waste directly in the mountain without the use of sealed containers seems absurd to me.)
If the waste is not stored properly, there could be serious environmental implications and negative impacts on the people who live in the surrounding area. There are additional implications with regard to the transport of this waste to the site, and the risks posed to anyone within a certain distance of the transportation routes, which would run throughout the entire U.S. (I will be following up on the potential environmental and health effects as well as the transport issue in a later post.)

What is your position on Yucca; is this an issue of which you were previously aware?

Smokers, this means you!

First, let me say that I am someone who does not smoke and who detests cigarettes. I grew up with a father who smoked heavily, and I actually believe that it is he who is to credit for the fact that neither I nor my three siblings have ever smoked cigarettes. We developed an aversion to and even a hatred for smoking as a result of being couped up in cars, rooms, and other small spaces with fumes of the nasty stuff. My dad would light up after each meal, and would always smoke in the car. In his defense, he was fourteen when he started smoking, and back in his day, I think doctors were still telling people that nicotene was no more harmful than bubble gum. It took my father fifty years to quit, but he did it. I think that the higher the number of years you have smoked, the greater is the accomplishment of quitting.

However, since the 1970's or so, doctors, along with the Surgeon General, have caught onto the fact that cigarettes, are in fact, bad for your health. This is why I cannot understand why anyone around my own age, give or take fifteen years, would have started smoking in the first place. It does not make sense. Aside from being terrible for your health, it is just plain disgusting! Yes, I have tried a few cigarettes, just to see what the allure is, and I could not figure it out. What is the appeal - bad breath, smelly hair and clothes, yellowed teeth?

Not to mention those of you who flick your cigarette butts out of car windows, leaving them to land all over the road. Where do you think they go? Don't you have an ashtray in your car?

And the smokers who stand outside of buildings and when finished, throw their cigarettes on the ground, stamp them out, and leave them there! The world is not your trash can.

With all of my disgust with regard to cigarette smoking, there is a new element of repulsion which has come to my attention in recent years. Smokers, you are polluting the environment! If you want to make your lungs black and poison yourself slowly, go for it. But your actions are impacting others, in fact, the whole world. [Interesting articles: How Smoking Affects Our Environment, AHA: Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Cigarette Butts Cause Environmental Pollution]

On a side note, here is a link to images of cigarette warning in European Union countries. They are somewhat more detailed and severe than those found in the U.S.

I walk, therefore I am green...

I hate driving. I am lucky enough to live close enough to my job so that I can walk to work every morning. I used to live thirty miles from work, and it would take me between fifty minutes and two hours (depending on the weather and other factors) to travel each way to work. In late August, I moved and started to walk to work. I have since become a changed person. Before, hostile, angry, tense, frustrated, and hoarse (from yelling at the other drivers), I would arrive home and spend the rest of the evening trying to "de-stress" not only from my job, but from my commute. Since I have started walking to work, I have become less tense and less hostile (or at least able to focus my hostility on the things that really bother me:). I feel healthier, not only because I walk, but because I do not have to spend two or three hours of my day couped up in a small, stuffy car without moving. (It is bad enough to have to sit for eight hours a day at your job.)
With concerns such as global warming and rapidly rising gas prices, public transportation, biking and walking are obviously becoming the ideal forms of transportation. However, methods of commute such as these are not only environmentally and financially friendly, they are in fact good for your physical and mental health. [Interesting articles: Green Exercise]
It is unfortunate that there are not a great many cities in the United States where you can rely solely on public transit and walking, or at least rely on it as your preferred mode of transportation. Cities like New York, San Francisco, Boston and Portland have been heralded for their commuter-friendly transportation options. How do you feel your city ranks with regard to transportation?

Survival of the sleepiest…

Sleep: 20 hours; Eat, play, mate: 4 hours
This may sound like an average day in the life of an American college student. However, this relaxing and somewhat loungy schedule describes the life of the koala bear; unfortunately, it is out of necessity that these creatures sleep their lives away. An article featured on CNN.com today describes the fragile existance of this endangered species, and how our actions are impacting the survival of the koala.
It is true that Earth Day took place last month, but given the state of the environment, I have to ask - is devoting one day out of three-hundred sixty-five to the earth enough? It is disheartening to read about the state of the environment, and the effect that our daily way of life is having on the world. The negative impact that we are having is not something that will happen in the indefinite future; the effect can readily be seen today.
To me, it seems like there is not much any one person can do without drastically changing one’s way of life. However, I have found several “green guides” which have proven me wrong. There are indeed simple ways that any of us can reduce our negative impact on the environment without making major changes. And keep in mind that many of these green tips will also save you money!

Yahoo! Green

The Green Guide by National Geographic