Earthquake In Yucca Mountain

Nuclear Waste Since the end of the World War II, nuclear energy has been one of the most potent forces on the planet. Nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers dominate the oceans and nuclear power plants provide nearly 20% of the nation’s power supply (Bayh & Gregg, 2014). All of this nuclear production produces tremendous amounts of nuclear waste. This waste must be disposed of safely, creating a problem for scientists and politicians for decades to come.

A Growing Problem

There is currently 45,000 tons of spent nuclear material sitting in sites across the country, a number that is expected to double by the year 2035 (Kallen, 2005). Radioactive waste material comes in two forms: low-level waste and high-level waste. Low-level

Unfortunately, a series of setbacks would hamper further construction, questioning the fate of Yucca Mountain. The first setback came in 2002 when the federal courts raised the standards for Yucca Mountain’s development by a factor of 10 (Murphy, 2006). Raising the bar on the quality of the site’s development brought to question validity of the entire site. Nevada places third in the nation for seismic activity, having experienced hundreds of earthquakes in recent decades (Walker, 2009). Should an earthquake hit the Yucca Mountain facility, there is a chance the storage containers could topple over and crack. In addition, the site itself can become damaged; a cave-in would make it extremely difficult, or impossible, for engineers to retrieve the materials inside. The threat of seismic activity also raises the question of groundwater contamination. Although the water-table lays thousands of feet below Yucca Mountain, a sudden shift in geography can bring that water much closer to the surface (Kallen,

From there the scrap is sent through an auto-shredder, which breaks the material down into small pieces. With laser precision, the material is sorted and the useable metal is separated from the unusable parts. The unusable material, referred to as fluff, consists of shredded plastic, foam, glass, and any organic material. This fluff is sent to local landfills to be used as daily top-cover for conventional waste. Once the scrap metal is sorted, it is loaded onto train cars and is transported by rail to cities such as Chicago, IL, and Davenport, IA, where it is melted down and repurposed into new products (G. Roys, personal communication, November 18, 2014). Clayton County Recycling receives its material from all over the region. The site has contracts with many different businesses to process waste metal. The CCR also purchases scrap from individuals. The current rate for ferrous metal is $150 a ton, the price being determined by supply and demand. Home and auto sales, which require large amounts of metal in their construction, directly affect the going rate for salvage. Large disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, provide a large, sudden demand for construction materials, which can dramatically raise the price of scrap (G. Roys, personal communication, November 18,