Informed Nuke wrote on June 25, 2008 05:10 PM: Just to set the record straight for all who might take a look. An average nuclear plant of the light water reactor type (LWR) expends approximatly 20 tons of used fuel per year. Currently this is what we classify as "waste", although it still contains about 95% of its original energy, but that is a different issue. The Yucca Mountain site is legislated to store approximatly 70,000 tons of this "waste" but numerous studies show that this could be expanded.

Skeptical Nevadan wrote on June 25, 2008 08:16 AM: Just another example of how political and hypocritical this whole fiasco has become: the State objecting sharply to the possibility that the law firm hired by DOE (i.e., paid advocates) might actually take the position of advocating for their clients. I suppose it's reasonable to hold the DOE to a higher standard in this case (it has the burden of proof, it should avoid potential conflicts of interest, etc.). But still, the State's own legal representation is openly and rabidly against the Yucca Mountain repository, as witnessed by the recent and unfortunate death of one of the State's hired legal guns, Joe Egan, who requested that his ashes be scattered at the Yucca site with the message "Over my dead body."

As for the transportation issue, the idea that the waste will travel right through Vegas is a fantasy perpetuated by repository opponents to frighten gullible citizens. All of the proposed transportation routes don't come near Vegas, in accordance with strict federal guidelines set by the NRC and DOT.

The simple truth is that Las Vegans face a far more serious threat from the daily shipments of common chemicals in tanker trucks, and yet no one seems concerned about them, much in the way people in our town are unconcerned about environmental and safety issues in general.

And by the way, either the History Channel or the viewers got the facts wrong if they claimed that Yucca Mountain will store 170,000 tons of waste or that nuclear plants currently produce 70,000 tons of such waste per year. Yucca Mountain is slated to store about 77,000 tons total, and the total inventory of waste in the U.S. is about 60,000 tons. If we produced waste at a rate of 70,000 tons per year, we'd have over two million tons.

Kent wrote on June 24, 2008 11:36 PM: On the History Channel this evening they showed a timely program on nuclear waste issues and Yucca Mountain respository. After seeing it, I see very little comfort in the way that the DOE is handling the project. Storage is not only issue, but also the transportation infrastructure is called into question when much of the waste goes right through Las Vegas. There will be objections from other states as well where this spent fuel needs to travel through by train and tractor rigs to transport the waste to Yucca Mountain. The plan, I learned, is that Yucca Mountain is geared up to store 170,000 tons of hot and cold nuclear waste. The 103 nuclear plants in the U.S. expend 70,000 tons of spent fuel each year. So the DOE is going to have to cut corners or expand Yucca repository even more. Also DOE guarantees the site will be safe for 1 million years after its closed, if you believe this claim. The Feds broke their contract to nuclear utility companies because they guaranteed to take their spent fuel by January 1998 at Yucca and now paying them $300 million a year to store the waste until they have Yucca ready. The site is only an 1.5 hours from Vegas on SR-95.