Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer by Helen Caldicott

Author:Helen Caldicott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The New Press
Published: 2019-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

• Contaminated water from corroded casks could seep into the groundwater and spread to Amargosa Valley, which may communicate via a hydrological pathway to Death Valley, and spread to nearby farming areas and protected species habitat, and produce radioactive springs.4

• A volcanic event may lead to magma intrusion into the tunnels where the waste is stored, melting the cannisters. If the volcanic event opened a path to the surface, radioactivity could be spread around the landscape.

• Radioactive chlorine 36 has been found deep inside the so-called waterproof mountain. This isotope could have come only from atmospheric nuclear testing performed in the 1950s and 1960s, meaning that water penetrated the mountain in fewer than fifty years, thousands of times faster than was estimated by the DOE.5

• Much more water was discovered inside the mountain than originally estimated—conditions were supposed to be relatively dry so the metal casks containing the radiation would not corrode over time. It is expected that the climate will become much wetter in the future. This will likely increase infiltration.6

• Yucca Mountain is located in an active earthquake zone, and at least thirty-three known active faults pass within twenty miles of the Mountain, some within the proposed repository itself. In June 1992, an earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale hit Yucca Valley in Southern California.7 Two days later, an earthquake measuring 5.2 caused $1 million of damage to the DOE building located six miles from Yucca.

• Part of Yucca Mountain is below the Nellis Air Force Base flight training region. This is where new military jets and pilots are tested. It is also used for war exercises involving both US pilots and pilots from other countries. Crashes are not unusual.8

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