Yucca Mountain Project

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Yucca Mountain Project
Alparslan Gurbuz
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Types of Waste To Be Stored

• SNF - spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors
  that hasnt been reprocessed
• HLW - high-level radioactive waste formed when
  reprocessing spent fuel
• Other radioactive waste
• greater-than-class-C waste - highly radioactive
  low-level waste
• Plutonium-239 resulting from the dismantlement of
  nuclear weapons

SNF Cooling Pool

• http//www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/pools.
  html
• 90 Commercial Nuclear Power Plants
• 10 Government Defense Programs
• http//www.epa.gov/radiation/yucca/about.htm
• Half-lives range from 30 years, such as Cesium,
  to 24,000 years, such as Plutonium

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The Formation of SNF Nuclear WasteNuclear
Fission

• A Uranium atom absorbs a neutron.
• The atom becomes unstable and divides.
• The division forms two smaller atoms, and
  releases up to three neutrons along with energy.
• The energy is absorbed by water as heat and used
  to generate electricity.
• The neutrons repeat this process of nuclear
  fission by splitting up other Uranium atoms,
  forming a chain of reaction.
• The controlled process is a self-sustaining chain
  of reaction.

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Atom Splitting Chain of Reaction
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The Problem of Waste

• Fission fragments - the divided atoms that can no
  longer provide economically enough energy and
  continue the chain of reaction (waste)

• Every three to four years, the fuel rods that
  hold Uranium pellets are removed after about 25
  of the atoms have undergone nuclear fission. They
  are intensely radioactive because they still emit
  considerable amounts of energy as they decay.
• They are then removed, cooled in pools, and
  placed in temporary concrete tanks with steel
  outlines.

www.chm.bris.ac.uk/ motm/uf6/uf6c.htm
US Department Of Energy Transportation FAQs
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The Problem of Waste (contd)

• To contain the radiation, the material must be
  held in impenetrable containers such as the
  nuclear reactors tanks during the fission
  process and afterwards when it is in the form of
  waste.

• Since these pools are filling up, the waste must
  be transported to a government facility that
  provides permanent underground storage for
  radioactive waste.

www.chm.bris.ac.uk/ motm/uf6/uf6c.htm
www.yuccamountain.org/transport.htm
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Yucca Mountain Timeline

• 1952 Atomic Energy Act- allowed private ownership
  of nuclear materials, but despite restrictions
  could control to ensure public health and safety,
  which includes final disposal
• 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act- Began a policy for
  a permanent geological SNF and HLW repository by
  the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
  Management of DOE
• 1987 Amended NWPA- Directed DOE to study the
  Yucca Mountain environment for the repository
  site
• 1992 Energy Policy Act- Assigned Environmental
  Protection Agency to set standards for the Yucca
  Mountain site
• 2002 July- The president and Congress approved
  the Yucca Mountain site for radioactive waste
  disposal
• ? 2004- Nuclear Regulatory Committee may grant
  the license needed to dispose the nuclear waste
  at the first radioactive waste repository site of
  the US
• ? 2010- Earliest expected year to commence waste
  disposal

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EPA Safety Standards

• ... EPA shall promulgate, by rule, public
  health
• and safety standards for protection of the public
  from
• releases of radioactive materials stored or
  disposed of in the repository at the Yucca
  Mountain site. Such standards shall prescribe the
  maximum annual effective dose equivalent to
  individual members of the public from releases to
  the accessible environment from radioactive
  materials stored or disposed of in the
  repository.
• Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-486)

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Standards by EPA Maximum Annual Radiation Dose

• 15 millirem during pre-closure to someone in
  vicinity
• 15 millirem during post-closure to someone in
  vicinity (to repository site)
• 4.3 of natural average radiation dose
• Same dose as Waste Isolation Pilot Plant of New
  Mexico
• Considered harmless
• 4 millirem from groundwater radionuclides
• 5 rem estimated radiation exposure to Yucca
  Mountain site workers
• Average annual radiation dose from natural
  sources 35050 millirem

Recommendation by the Secretary of Energy
6.1.2 NRC Guidelines 40 CFR
10
6. Is Yucca Mountain Scientifically and
Technically Suitable for Development of a
Repository?

• The Department of Energy concludes, as set out
  in 10 CFR part 963, that Yucca Mountain is
  likely to meet the applicable radiation
  standards and thus to protect the health and
  safety of the public, including those living in
  the immediate vicinity now and thousands of years
  from now.
• (Underline emphasis on likely)

Recommendation by the Secretary of
Energy Regarding the Suitability of the Yucca
Mountain Site for a Repository Under the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act of 1982 February 2002
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The Repository Solution Yucca Mountain
Proceeding with the repository program is
necessary to protect public safety, health, and
the Nation's security because successful
completion of this project would isolate in a
geologic repository at a remote location highly
radioactive materials now scattered throughout
the Nation. In addition, the geologic repository
would support our national security through
disposal of nuclear waste from our defense
facilities.
A deep geologic repository, such as Yucca
Mountain, is important for our national security
and our energy future. Nuclear energy is the
second largest source of U.S. electricity
generation and must remain a major component of
our national energy policy in the years to come.
President Bush, February 15, 2002,
Presidential Letter to Congress
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NUCLEAR WASTE IN WAITING
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Location

• Repository
• 300 meters above the ground water
• 300 meters below the peak of the mountain

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Why the Yucca Mountain site?

• Federally owned land
• Remote smaller impact
• Within boundaries of Department of Energy Nuclear
  Test Site in Nye County
• Low resource value
• Ideally cheaper to dispose the waste in the Yucca
  site than at current locations throughout the
  nation

Ron Oden, J. Kurowski, and Stephen Reich. A
Closer Look at Yucca Mountain
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Shipment Routes

• Currently stored at 131 commercial reactor and
  Energy Department sites
• Over a period of 30 years, the 77,000 tons of
  radioactive waste will be transported
• Every shipment will cover an average distance of
  2000 miles
• The waste will pass through 734 counties, coming
  into a 3 mile proximity of 50 million people
• It will move through many large metropolitan
  cities ranging from a daily basis to every 7
  hours (Salt Lake City)

http//www.counterpunch.org/krieger0904.html
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Transportation Routes Throughout The US
http//www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/maps2002/roadrail/
index.htm
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Waste Casks

• The nuclear waste will be stored within cask
  containers. For transportation, the waste will be
  contained in transportation casks and moved on
  trucks, trains, and barges.

Transportation Cask

• Basic Structure
• Basket holding the waste located inside a
  cylindrical canister
• Impact limiters shock absorbing caps at each of
  the cylindrical canisters

www.yuccamountainfacts.org/ htmltonuke.php?filnavn
transportation.html

• The transportation casks are designed to sustain
  containment efficiency after undergoing the
  following successive tests
• a drop from 30 ft onto an unyielding surface
• a drop from 6 ft onto a spike
• a 30 minute fire at 1425F and
• a 30 minute submersion in 3 ft of water

Storage Cask
Nuclear Regulatory Committee Cask Safety
Guidelines
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Internal Design
Ron Oden, J. Kurowski, and Stephen Reich. A
Closer Look at Yucca Mountain
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Transportation Cask Safety

• Maximum of 10 millirem per hour at 6 ft from cask
• Cask truck and train drivers
• Neighboring cars during traffic jams
• Children (can develop cancers after only 1/10th
  of the standard cancer causing exposure to
  radiation)
• Cask durability tests
• Performed using computer simulations
• Accident/Disaster Analysis
• Performed using computer simulations with data
  dating back to 1980s
• Transportation safety guidelines are from 1970s,
  do not take terrorist attacks into consideration

http//www.yuccamountainfacts.org/htmltonuke.php?f
ilnavntransportation.html

• We cannot easily de-couple the environmental
  from safety considerations of transportation and
  try to study them in laboratory isolation there
  are interactive effects among them.
• Najmedin Meshkati, Ph.D. February 23, 2002.
  Safety, Security and Environmental Research Needs
  for Transporting Nations High-Level Nuclear
  Waste to Yucca Mountain

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Transportation Compatibility

• the Yucca Mountain site is affected by
  unique local conditions that increase both the
  radiological risks and perceived risks of nuclear
  waste transportation.
• DOEs 1986 comparative analysis showed that
  selection of Yucca Mountain would result in the
  highest projected number of transportation
  accident injuries and fatalities.

Robert J. Halstead, Transportation Advisor to the
State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
http//www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11099.h
tm
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Casualty Estimation Comparisons

• One accident expected for every 300 shipments
• Estimated 6 billion per serious accident
• Casualties per year from a severe accident (1.3
  diameter hole in transportation cask) range from
  80 (DOE) to between 450 and 2900 (State of
  Nevada)
• Untrained and unprepared health facilities along
  the routes in dealing with mass exposure to
  radioactive waste
• DOE uses favorable numbers
• Radiation Potency Number is outdated, the
  required radiation dose to develop fatal cancers
  is half that of National Academy of Sciences
• Assumes waste to have cooled for 15 years before
  transportation, but will only have cooled for 5
  years
• Estimations based on lowest emission of Cesium
  gas during accident
• Proximity to schools and higher vulnerability to
  children not considered

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Transportation Accident Effects

• if there is an accident (or foul play)
  resulting in the release of a hazardous substance
  from a cargo train, then the train operators are
  the first layer of people whose safety and health
  are impacted. The next immediate concern is for
  the local affected public, down wind
  communities, as well as the short and long-term
  environmental effects of such release on water,
  soil and air. Therefore, as long as the
  transportation of nuclear waste and its potential
  release is concerned, the safety (including
  security) and environmental considerations are
  mutually reinforcing areas and are two sides of a
  coin.
• Najmedin Meshkati, Ph.D. Safety, Security and
  Environmental Research Needs for Transporting
  Nations High-Level Nuclear Waste to Yucca
  Mountain. February 23, 2002.

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Yucca Mountain Site Characterization

• Unknown possible climate changes
• Underground water table
• Crystals are possible indication of intermittent
  upwelling of groundwater
• Thousands of years later, cladding could be
  corroded to let the water absorb radionuclides
  from the waste
• Only water source to residents of Amargosa Valley
• Water source to largest Nevada dairy farm that
  supplies milk to 30 mil people on the west coast
• Active magma pocket below the mountain
• Earthquakes
• 3rd most seismically active region of US
• More than 600 earthquakes in past 25 years
• Last earthquake on July 14, 2002, magnitude of
  4.4
• Volcanic history

http//www.counterpunch.org/krieger0904.html http
//tms.physics.lsa.umich.edu/214/other/news/080799s
ci-yucca-mountain.html
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The Underground Water Table
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Protest
The half-life of Plutonium is 24,000 years,
meaning it will emit hazardous radiation for the
next 240,000 years.
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Political Cartoon
Disposing the waste seems cheaper and safe now,
but the effects will prove otherwise.
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References

1. http//www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/pools.
   html
2. http//www.epa.gov/radiation/yucca/about.htm
3. US Department Of Energy Transportation FAQs
4. http//www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/uf6/uf6c.htm
5. http//www.yuccamountain.org/transport.htm
6. Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-486)
7. Recommendation by the Secretary of Energy
   Regarding the Suitability of the Yucca Mountain
   Site for a Repository Under the Nuclear Waste
   Policy Act of 1982. February 2002
8. President Bush. Presidential Letter to Congress.
   February 15, 2002
9. Ron Oden, J. Kurowski, and Stephen Reich. A
   Closer Look at Yucca Mountain
10. http//www.counterpunch.org/krieger0904.html

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References contd

1. http//www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/maps2002/roadrail/
   index.htm
2. http//www.yuccamountainfacts.org/htmltonuke.php?f
   ilnavntransportation.html
3. Nuclear Regulatory Committee Cask Safety
   Guidelines
4. http//www.yuccamountainfacts.org/htmltonuke.php?f
   ilnavntransportation.html
5. Najmedin Meshkati, Ph.D. February 23, 2002.
   Safety, Security and Environmental Research Needs
   for Transporting Nations High-Level Nuclear
   Waste to Yucca Mountain
6. Robert J. Halstead, Transportation Advisor to the
   State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
7. http//www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11099.h
   tm
8. http//tms.physics.lsa.umich.edu/214/other/news/08
   0799sci-yucca-mountain.html