Texas files lawsuit over licensing of Yucca Mountain

[Elderberry]

Las Vegas Review-Journal By GARY MARTIN 3/15/2017

WASHINGTON — A lawsuit filed by Texas in an appellate court claims the federal government violated the law in failing to complete the licensing process for permanent storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Wednesday the lawsuit was filed in the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. It seeks an up or down vote by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the Yucca Mountain site.

“For decades, the federal government has ignored our growing problem of nuclear waste,” Paxton said in a statement released in Austin.

“The NRC’s inaction on licensing Yucca Mountain subjects the public and the environment to potential dangerous risks from radioactive waste,” Paxton said. “We do not intend to sit quietly anymore.”

The lawsuit brought a swift rebuke by Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.

She suggested the lawsuit was an attempt to divert attention from Paxton’s legal woes. He has a scheduled May court date on state charges that he misled investors when he was a state representative.

“I suggest the Texas attorney general spend more time concentrating on the serious charges he is facing for securities fraud and less time trying to distract voters of Texas by screwing the people of Nevada,” Titus said.

“Yucca Mountain remains a dead and failed proposal. Any attempt to spend billions on this boondoggle is bad science and wasted resources,” Titus said.

But Paxton claims that several federal agencies have violated the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to provide a permanent repository for nuclear wastes generated by non-military reactors nationwide.

As of the end of 2014, more than 74,000 metric tons of nuclear waste were being temporarily stored at various facilities across the country, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Texas maintains that the 2012 deadline for a decision on making Yucca Mountain a permanent repository was ignored by the federal government.

More: http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/texas-files-lawsuit-over-licensing-yucca-mountain

[Smokin Joe]

A geologist I know who had seen core from the Yucca Mountain site told me that the rocks there are badly fractured (natural fractures, not those sometimes induced by coring). The implications of that are simple: groundwater percolation, and plenty of it. While the area may be dry now, climates change (even without SUVs), and increased rainfall over the time that the facility is supposed to exist as a secure repository could lead to leakage of radioactive wastes, carried by groundwater.
Permanent waste disposal has been a question since day one, and is a problem that has never been solved adequately.   

[thackney]

Related:

NUCLEAR WASTE
U.S. ends fee collections with $31B on hand and no disposal option in sight
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059999730
May 16, 2014

The Obama administration this week quietly stopped collecting fees that have propped up a nuclear waste program strangled by politics.

The federal retreat comes after a successful legal battle waged by states and the nuclear industry to stop the Department of Energy's collection of about $750 million a year. The government has socked away $30.9 billion.

But state regulators and industry officials that fought the fee collection aren't celebrating what they are calling a "hollow victory."

Bottom line: There's still no place to put more than 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste stored at reactors across the country.

"It's more of a moral victory," said Greg White, a member of the Michigan Public Service Commission and chairman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Subcommittee on Nuclear Issues-Waste Disposal.

State regulators won't oppose the fee, White said, if there's a program to go with it.

"We don't want our money back," he said. "We think it's appropriate for beneficiaries to pay the costs of the program. What we really want is a program moving forward and to move toward the day when waste is removed from the plants."

DOE has been collecting the fees since 1983 under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, which requires operators of nuclear plants to pay a tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour to the government in return for DOE taking responsibility for spent nuclear fuel.

Over the years, utilities have paid the fees, but the government never took the waste....

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Permanent waste disposal has been a question since day one, and is a problem that has never been solved adequately.

And never will be solved without risk, as you well know nothing is 'permanent'

[Smokin Joe]

And never will be solved without risk, as you well know nothing is 'permanent'

True enough. The idea of a 'facility' that could survive intact for 100 centuries, much less remain uninvaded by the unwary is mind boggling. Consider the changes which have happened in the last 10K years, and try to project that forward and it is a serious challenge to devise a storage method that will remain effective for half that.

[thackney]

The idea of a 'facility' that could survive intact for 100 centuries, much less remain uninvaded by the unwary is mind boggling.

This has possibilities:




But unfortunately those possibilities include nuclear volcanoes:

[EC]

Ask the Canadians nicely? The Canadian Shield hasn't shifted in a couple billion years.

[Cripplecreek]

This has possibilities:




But unfortunately those possibilities include nuclear volcanoes:

I personally think Yucca mountain is fine. After all it was chosen in part due to the geological stability. If we're done using it we can bury the access shafts under 1000 feet of concrete and nobody will stumble across it.

It beats storing it all around the country onsite.

[Smokin Joe]

Ask the Canadians nicely? The Canadian Shield hasn't shifted in a couple billion years.

It's in isostatic rebound from the last ice age. Cracks forming all over.

[Cripplecreek]

It's in isostatic rebound from the last ice age. Cracks forming all over.

Upper Peninsula near Menominee.



Interesting stuff. Crust under stress from the rebound with the removal of a single tree being enough to trigger it.

Menominee Crack: Giant 110m earth breach in Michigan may be caused by removal of just one tree

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/menominee-crack-giant-110m-earth-breach-michigan-may-be-caused-by-removal-just-one-tree-1542848

[truth_seeker]

A geologist I know who had seen core from the Yucca Mountain site told me that the rocks there are badly fractured (natural fractures, not those sometimes induced by coring). The implications of that are simple: groundwater percolation, and plenty of it. While the area may be dry now, climates change (even without SUVs), and increased rainfall over the time that the facility is supposed to exist as a secure repository could lead to leakage of radioactive wastes, carried by groundwater.
Permanent waste disposal has been a question since day one, and is a problem that has never been solved adequately.

While I'm not a geologist, I would expect that in 70+ years of holding nuclear materials, the US government would have determined the safest places to store, and worked through the political aspects.

Does Texas have a written contract with either the FedGov and/or Nevada?

Hopefully they do, and the foot dragging will turn out to be political delay by former Sen. Maj. Leader Reid.

 

[DB]

It's in isostatic rebound from the last ice age. Cracks forming all over.

We are in an ice age now. It is just an interglacial period after the last glacial period about 12,000 years ago.

[Smokin Joe]

While I'm not a geologist, I would expect that in 70+ years of holding nuclear materials, the US government would have determined the safest places to store, and worked through the political aspects.

Well, that's the problem. The politicians say "The scientists will find something" and plan accordingly. In the meantime, the problems remain the same as they were when I attended a Short Course in Uranium mineralogy in Toronto in '78. Geology is dynamic on this planet, and expecting something to remain stable, even for only 10000 years, is a lot (and difficult to find), without even going into the cultural implications of keeping people out of the dump. We really have no known culture on the planet which we can use as a model, none has survived that long, so even something so simple as warning signs have to be predicated on something other than a written language.

Does Texas have a written contract with either the FedGov and/or Nevada?

Hopefully they do, and the foot dragging will turn out to be political delay by former Sen. Maj. Leader Reid.

I don't know, but those are legalities, designed to get money back. They don't even begin to address the scientific problem.

[Smokin Joe]

We are in an ice age now. It is just an interglacial period after the last glacial period about 12,000 years ago.

Well, I'm just glad that those 2km of ice aren't in my back yard.

[DB]

Well, I'm just glad that those 2km of ice aren't in my back yard.

Can't argue with that!

I find it amazing that we are literally in and have been in for thousands of years an interglacial period where by definition glaciers are retreating. And yet suddenly it is some sort of sign of impending doom because - glaciers are retreating... Kind of nuts if you think about it...

[Smokin Joe]

Can't argue with that!

I find it amazing that we are literally in and have been in for thousands of years an interglacial period where by definition glaciers are retreating. And yet suddenly it is some sort of sign of impending doom because - glaciers are retreating... Kind of nuts if you think about it...

Consider the source of the panic. 'Kind of nuts' works.
In the times in recorded history when temperatures were colder humankind did not do so well. In the times when it was warmer, we flourished. One can only assume that those who would keep temperatures colder do not like humans or want them to do well. Either that or they are speculating in tropical real estate.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Since we do not have anything that will forever lasting, it seems we need to find the safest place we can instead.  Yucca Mountain seems to fit the bill.

Only item then to address is the transportation to the site.  Quite dangerous, I believe.

[Cripplecreek]

Consider the source of the panic. 'Kind of nuts' works.
In the times in recorded history when temperatures were colder humankind did not do so well. In the times when it was warmer, we flourished. One can only assume that those who would keep temperatures colder do not like humans or want them to do well. Either that or they are speculating in tropical real estate.

Seems to me that the cold has been very good for mankind in a lot of ways.

Humans may have come out of Africa but it wasn't till we got to Europe and Asia that populations really exploded while in Africa they never did. Even today Africa is relatively unpopulared.

The neanderthals were physically adapted to living along the edge of the ice sheet. Then the Cro Magnons showed up with the intellectual capacity to develop and adapt technologies. During the last ice age the desert belt across North Africa and the mideast were much cooler and wetter so farming and civilization began to grow. As the ice age ended farming and civilization followed the cooler wetter weather northward.

While the dark ages were largely caused by colder wetter weather and disease, by the end of that cold period, populations were rebounding due to cold tolerant crops and new technologies.
Even in this country southern populations didn't really take off till into the 40s, 50s, and 60s when air conditioning became reliable and affordable.

Not that we need another ice age but on balance, the cold has been good to mankind. At this point I suspect we could easily halt the advance of an ice sheet simply by lowering its reflectivity just like I melt icy sidewalks with black rubber mats.

[Smokin Joe]

Seems to me that the cold has been very good for mankind in a lot of ways.

Humans may have come out of Africa but it wasn't till we got to Europe and Asia that populations really exploded while in Africa they never did. Even today Africa is relatively unpopulared.

The neanderthals were physically adapted to living along the edge of the ice sheet. Then the Cro Magnons showed up with the intellectual capacity to develop and adapt technologies. During the last ice age the desert belt across North Africa and the mideast were much cooler and wetter so farming and civilization began to grow. As the ice age ended farming and civilization followed the cooler wetter weather northward.

It could be argued they followed good grazing for their herds, and before that for the animals they hunted. People moved where food was more abundant, unless they had been kicked out of their home.

While the dark ages were largely caused by colder wetter weather and disease, by the end of that cold period, populations were rebounding due to cold tolerant crops and new technologies.

The only time we know in recorded history that the human population curve dropped was in the middle ages due to famine and disease. There were other events like the Toba Eruption, but those were not ordinary everyday situations.

Even in this country southern populations didn't really take off till into the 40s, 50s, and 60s when air conditioning became reliable and affordable.

Southerners did just fine in the heat. There was no air conditioning in the tobacco fields I worked as a youth, nor while standing on seawall stringers driving sheeting (in the tidewater of MD). Temps got as high as 111 in the shade, and we worked out in that with no AC and 99% relative humidity was common. Didn't have air conditioning in vehicles, either, as a rule. Where the population grew was northerners moving south and huddling in their air conditioning while local kids mowed the lawn.

Not that we need another ice age but on balance, the cold has been good to mankind. At this point I suspect we could easily halt the advance of an ice sheet simply by lowering its reflectivity just like I melt icy sidewalks with black rubber mats.

I live in North Dakota. The only reason we have a growing season is the 18 hours of daylight at the peak of summer. Move winter up a couple weeks and spring back and there are no crops.  When the weather was warmer, exploration flourished, as did agriculture.
If people don't eat they don't do so well. Warmer weather would open up incredible areas of cropland because there is more land to the north in the Northern Hemisphere.
As for lowering reflectivity, you are talking about spreading something on an ice sheet the size of Canada and Alaska and Greenland, just in North America. The Southern Hemisphere will be easier, the higher latitudes have pointy ends, but Europe and Asia would have to have the same treatment and one snowfall would negate it.