Jobs aren’t worth the consequences

When I retired here in ’95, it was what I would call deserted, coming from the Chicago area. There was very little traffic or construction, and no measurement for allergy or dust count.

Now, it’s a different story. With the influx of people, cars and construction, it’s horrible. And Yucca Mountain? Please. A killer by any imagination. There’s not a decent word in my vocabulary to put on the person who would approve legislation for this.

Plus, all this nuclear waste would be transported through the city streets. There are more “no rules of the road,” “no driver’s license,” “no insurance” drivers in Nevada than any other state.

How long do you think these jobs would last? How many cancer patients would die from these jobs that these politicians have brought to Nevada?

Don’t let another “Trumper” (I’m not there, I don’t care) rule in this matter. Let the coming generations breathe as much clean air as possible.

Henderson

Not only no but hell no. Las Vegas is not a dump for other states. This is our home.

Other states accuse Nevada of being a NIMBY and unpatriotic. I say if they’re so patriotic, let’s dump their radioactive trash in their backyards and see who the NIMBY is.

In fact, may I propose that Illinois be designated as the nation’s official nuclear waste repository?

Las Vegas

After reading about what is happening in Washington state at Hanford Site, I am very much against having nuclear waste passing through our state.

This nuclear waste supposedly would be safe to pass through, but I expect the people in Washington thought the waste at Hanford was being safely processed as well.

Who can promise that those people so anxious to get the waste out of their area will be diligent in processing it so those in our state do not get radiated? We do not need to take this chance.

Las Vegas

For something that portends so much for us and future generations, my only comment is that this needs much more analysis and exposure.

In the context of today’s national politics and the current administration’s apparent attitude of trading off the environment for financial expedience, it raises the need for such study.

St. George, Utah

I was on nuclear submarines for six years, enclosed in a cylindrical tube submerged in the ocean for months at a time, living in close proximity with a nuclear reactor. With that experience, I’m not at all concerned about living 100 miles away from nuclear waste buried in a mountain. I have confidence that our scientists and engineers can devise ways of storing the nuclear waste safely.

Transporting the waste to the mountain is another matter. If I knew of nuclear waste being transported near my city, this would concern me. The nuclear waste should be transported in such a way that it doesn’t expose large population areas to the possibility of nuclear radiation in case of an accident.

If I were in charge, I would say, “Sure, we’ll store your nuclear waste, but it’s going to cost you.” Nevadans should be compensated in some manner for assuming the risk. Further, a safe means of transporting the waste should be devised.

Las Vegas

It isn’t if an accident or leak occurs, it is when it will occur.

Since the Chernobyl disaster, there have been 56 nuclear-related accidents in the United States. Recently there has been an accident at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state and, before that, in 2014 in New Mexico.

The Hanford Nuclear Site was used to develop plutonium and related nuclear material during World War II. After the war, cataloging on drums, storage tanks, etc., took place, but over the years, records were lost or incomplete. The Energy Department has been attempting to clean up Hanford since the 1980s but has not been able to complete the task, even though tanks are now leaking, drums are leaking and nuclear material has even contaminated workers and their vehicles.

Consider this: If nuclear waste is stored at Yucca Mountain for 30,000 years, databases kept on the material will no longer exist in today’s format, if at all. Computer programs will change and Yucca will become another Hanford.

Nuclear material eats away at the containers in which it is stored, meaning leaks will occur, which could contaminate the ground water and the entire site.

In a hundred years, the signs will have fallen down or faded away. The government won’t have the money to continue to care for the site, so it may just lock the doors and walk away. Then, since no one is around to remember this site, someone will open the doors and most likely die and expose the total area to radiation.

Any jobs that Yucca creates will only last until the tunnel is full, which won’t take long since there is enough to fill it right now. Las Vegas

The Yucca Mountain project is essential for Nevada. The project will bring thousands of professional-grade workers to the site. Moreover, Nye County, which can’t even keep a hospital going, will reap rewards for years.

The area has been studied for years. There is clear evidence that the site for the long-term storage is ideal.

What is so good about storing the fuel waste above ground, anyway?

Mesquite

The basic issue is Yucca Mountain is sited in the wrong rock, and high-level waste has changed so much since the 1970s that it is no longer high-level except in name.

I was one of the original authors of the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and for 35 years I have worked on Yucca Mountain, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., and most of the international nuclear waste programs. The whole point of deep geologic disposal is the geology. We picked the best place 60 years ago, the Salado Salt formation in New Mexico and Texas, but it got political in the 1970s.

The Topopah Springs tuff at Yucca Mountain was the worst rock formation we studied: a dual-porosity, variably saturated, highly fractured, oxidizing geohydrologic system. Because of this, the rock can provide almost none of the properties needed for the successful performance of the repository. So we had to add several engineered barriers and other characteristics that sent the cost from about $30 billion to $300 billion, including the costs of preparation at the generator sites like Hanford. The correct rock needs only about $30 billion.

But Yucca Mountain was chosen for political reasons. The problem now is that those reasons are now irrelevant and few remember them.

Yucca Mountain is the textbook case of the intersection of science and society, where politics, history and economics are as important as science, but where science should be the ultimate decider.

Richland, Wash.

When the “Screw Nevada Bill” was passed, it was a bad deal. Today, it is even worse as the movement of waste over land is too exposed to possible sabotage.

Does France recycle its waste? Why can’t the president get the know-how from his good buddy, French President Emmanuel Macron?

Does any country using atoms for power have a disposal method? Let’s get some data on what the others users are doing and do it better. Just a thought.

Las Vegas

I vote in favor of the Yucca Mountain repository. It is the best place in the country to store nuclear waste. Other sites are major accidents waiting to happen. Nevada should do what’s best for the country, not itself. Besides, the state would benefit tremendously from a financial viewpoint. Charge what you want.

Las Vegas

This is such an example of politics winning out over science. I personally visited the site in the early ’90s, and looking out at all those “extinct” volcano cones struck me as a horrible place to store such volatile material. No one can predict or guarantee such long-term storage, Nevada should not have to shoulder such a burden.

Las Vegas

Yucca Mountain would be a repository for nuclear waste, not a “dump.” Waste would be contained in highly engineered canisters and emplaced in mined tunnels thousand feet below the ground surface.

Waste being transported to a repository cannot simply be spilled, because it is solid — a combination of metal, glass and ceramics. In addition, waste would be transported in containers designed to withstand severe accidents. Although transportation of high-level nuclear waste is not risk-free, the risk is comparable to that of transporting many other hazardous materials that are shipped routinely.

The alternative to transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain or another repository location is to safeguard waste at more a hundred different sites, forever. The U.S. has formally evaluated options for disposing high-level nuclear waste several times and, each time, has identified deep geologic disposal as the best option.

North Las Vegas I support the project fully and so does everyone I know. We are like a silent majority that does not speak up.

Las Vegas

We strongly oppose the use of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste depository for the following reasons:

The site is flawed and nuclear waste can and will leach into ground water.

Any earth movement (small earthquakes) can and will increase Yucca Mountain’s instability. Small earthquakes are inevitable.

Nuclear leakage would make aroundthe-world headlines that would result in dramatically decreased tourism – Las Vegas’ lifeblood.

Spillage cannot be cleaned up easily and would create a toxic environment in the valley for years to come. It would make living in Las Vegas impossible.

Trucking toxic waste from one point to another is an accident waiting to happen. It would threaten not only Las Vegas and the environment, but other cities through which the trucks must pass.

If Yucca is reopened, we will seek another, safer place to live. We think others will do the same. Henderson

Having visited the proposed area within the past month on a tour with American Association of University Women, courtesy of the Atomic Testing Museum, I see no reason why we should not get this site up and running.

1. It is an established facility.

2. There is absolutely nothing out there and it sits on thousands of feet of river gravel, not unstable layers of rocks.

3. There will never be large-scale development around that area and reopening more of this facility would be a bonus for the people who live nearby.

4. We are way behind on getting this started as a country.

5. How do we safely get the waste there? Military transports. There is an airstrip already in place. Our technology has progressed to the point that we should have very little trouble moving and storing the waste in this fashion.

Let’s get moving. The clock is ticking and a lot of waste material needs to be repackaged and put in a safer place.

Las Vegas

Ever since this started years ago, I have always held the opinion that you can’t fight City Hall. There are 48 other states that don’t want this dump and found a place in Nevada. We are going to get this shoved down our throats no matter what we do legally. Therefore, we should shove back at the federal government. Here is what I propose we ask for:

Return all BLM lands back to Nevada control.

Increased water rights from the Colorado River.

A yearly bonus check of $10,000 per person residing in Nevada for the past 20 years, fashioned after Alaska’s federal pipeline payments. Use tax filings as proof.

No federal income tax for people living in Nevada for the past 25 years, continuously.

These may seem like extraordinarily high terms, but if you don’t ask for the moon, you’ll end up with very little. I have no problem with Yucca being use for the dump. It is impossible to show that there won’t be any problems for 10,000 years as it was proposed. But from what I read and saw, I believe they have done enough.

Las Vegas

In my freshman engineering class, the instructor held something up and asked if it was round. It looked round, but the instructor said, probably it was not round. In fact, he opined that nothing in the history of the earth has ever been round. It may be within one billionth of an inch of round, but it probably is not exactly round.

If you’re building a house, and you specify a 2x4 six feet long, chances are your 2x4 is not six feet long. You can maybe tolerate it being off by an eighth of an inch, but if you demand that it be accurate to the width of a human hair, that is a problem. You can’t afford that house.

I was on the Apollo program. A serious discussion was on the “factor of safety.” Welds are not identical. Do you make it 10 times as strong as it needs to be? Twice as strong? How about 1.5? Yes, we took some risks. But with a factor of safety of 2, it would never get off the ground.

Recently, I read an article on the probability of being hit by a tornado. Perhaps we should prohibit anyone living in Kansas.

What are the numbers on Yucca Mountain? How does that compare with other risks in my life? There are risks in the copper mine, but we need copper for the windmill generator. There are risks in the solar panel factory and the transportation and installation of the panels. Heat is generated in manufacturing, transportation, and installation of solar panels, and this contributes to global warming.

When I was born, the world had about 2 billion people. Now it has about 8 billion. Clearly, with all the risks, many of us survive. Las Vegas