Yucca Mountain: A place for Nuclear Waste Material

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Nuclear waste is a huge problem in our world today but it also makes the world that we know possible. The problem with it is that we have reached the point where we produce it faster than we can store it. Everyone will agree that the waste obviously needs to be stored somewhere, but we can also agree that we do not want it stored or transported through our back yards. The goal of the government is to store the waste in one location, Yucca Mountain, instead of scattered across the country. To do this all of the existing waste must be removed from their locations, put into some type of safe transportation and shipped across cities, states and even the country. With the massive amounts of waste that need to be transported to the site, the people that live near the rail roads and routes that would be used for the waste would be in serious danger if exposed to these chemicals. There is a large risk of exposing communities, towns and large cities to chemicals that could cause a Chernobyl sized accident and this not worth the possible positives of the project. Placing all of the nation’s waste in Yucca Mountain is an environmental injustice in itself by storing it near, and transporting it through the hometowns and big cities of our country.
The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In simpler terms this means that something is an environmental injustice if the environment or any of the people living in it are being knowingly mistreated. Nuclear waste cases have been some of the m...

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...r Waste Management in the United States: Starting Over
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Science, New Series, Vol. 325, No. 5937 (Jul. 10, 2009), pp. 151-152
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20536586

The Road to Yucca Mountain: The Development of Radioactive Waste Policy in the United States by J. Samuel Walker
Review by: BRIAN BALOGH
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Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for the History of Technology
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23020592
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Mary Riddel
Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 75, No. 3 (Jan., 2009), pp. 781-797
Published by: Southern Economic Association
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27751415

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