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    A Reassuring Schedule for Yucca Mountain

    http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/09/a_reassuring_sc...
    126 days ago in Pure Pedantry · Authority: 149

    A Reassuring Schedule for Yucca Mountain Category: Politics I don't want to get into the issue of whether the nuclear storage site at Yucca Mountain is a good idea. (The folks over at SEA know a whole lot more about the subject than I do.) My gut instinct is that the whole thing will cost a fortune -- and likely much more than the estimates -- but if we are committed to carbon-free power, then we must be prepared to make sacrifices. However, it is satisfying to see that a final decision about whether to build the thing is proceeding speedily along: After twenty years of study by more than 2,000 scientists and engineers about the feasibility of using Yucca Mountain, Nevada as a permanent nuclear waste repository, the United States is about "three to four years away from answering that question and putting it to bed." So stated Edward F. Sproat III, Director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management of the Department of Energy at a congressional hearing last month. Sproat was one of the witnesses at a July hearing of the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Since that hearing was held, DOE released a 52-page report that estimates a $96.2 billion life cycle cost over 150 years to research, construct, and operate the repository. The "three to four years" Sproat referred to is the length of time that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will need to review the 8,600-page license application that DOE submitted in early June. After an initial review of the adequacy of the application, NRC will, following reviews and hearings, determine if a construction and operating license can be issued. The earliest opening date for the repository is now estimated to be 2020. It renews my faith in government to see that in a mere 4 years we can set a deadline for a hearing to make a decision about issuing a plan. Decisive action is at hand. Whoever said that bureaucracy wasn't efficient has clearly never worked with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Posted by Jake Young at 10:53 AM •