Nuclear Waste

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2002

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"U.S Sets Safety Rules for Yucca Nuclear Waste Site"�""Standards for an Unsafe Location Summary: An article from The Washington post on line of June 6,2001, describes the health and safety standards for a future nuclear waste depository proposed by the Bush administration.

The EPA officials claim that they had preserved the same tough standards proposed by the Clinton administration in 1999. The standards control all sources of radiation exposure and were designed to protect the closest residents to the repository. The dose limit is of no more than 15 millirem per year, which is about twice the exposure of living in a house made of bricks for a year. The limit for groundwater radiation contamination is 4 milllirem.

Geographical Themes: I selected Movement as the primary Theme for my report. However, all the other Themes could apply to the story as well and will be included in it.

Yucca Mountain is a controversial site chosen to hold an underground repository of high radioactive waste.

It is located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The repository will hold 78,000 tons of radioactive wastes so the nation could meet its long-term energy needs. At the present day, nuclear waste is being disposed at the nuclear plants waiting for a permanent disposal facility. However, even if the repository at Yucca Mountain is opened another hazard arises which is the possibility of an accident where the spillage of the nuclear waste could happen. Once the facility is open, there will be more than 100,000 shipments through 43 states over the next 30 years and that leaves plenty of chances for an accident to happen. The main transportation methods will be road and rail and will be passing through or close to many populated areas. I assume that anybody that has some...