Yucca Mountain: The USA's Nuclear Dump

this video is brought to you by squarespace whether it's a new year's resolution or a lifelong passion start your journey to website glory with squarespace check out their wonderful all-in-one platform through the link in the description below more on them in a bit [Music] in terms of controversial topics you'd be hard-pressed to find a more contested subject than the disposal of nuclear waste to spend nuclear fuel from all of those weapons stockpiled during the cold war and waste generated from nuclear power stations needs to be stored somewhere as it can't be safely disposed of but the periods of time that we're talking about here are simply staggering the most dangerous and long-lasting waste could remain radioactive for up to a million years even low-level waste could take up to ten thousand years which is no doubt a difficult selling point for any residents living nearby to a proposed nuclear waste dump the united states is one of the two biggest producers of nuclear weapons has an awful lot of nuclear waste and needs long-term storing and one proposed site lies roughly 130 kilometers northwest of the las vegas valley at a place called yucca mountain the proposed yucca mountain nuclear waste repository was designed as a series of tunnels that would be able to accommodate large amounts of high-level nuclear waste but has faced withering attacks ever since the project was approved in 2002 with just about every conceivable group voicing their opposition the project which has already seen extensive excavation work has been in limbo since 2011 when federal funding ended leaving nuclear waste steadily building up across the country that doesn't sound like a good situation like as much as we hate having to store nuclear waste we kinda gotta do it guys nuclear waste disposal is a thorny subject and one with plenty of myths and hearsay it's not difficult to see why the fear of living anywhere near radiation is enough to make almost anybody explode at the merest hint of a nuclear waste repository with stories of chernobyl and fukushima still fresh in the mind it can be next to impossible to convince people that nuclear waste can be stored safely but the storage of the waste is probably one of the safest parts of the entire operation the greatest nuclear disasters have come not from storage or transportation but rather natural disasters and human error the question of whether we should even be using nuclear energy seems to have died down in recent decades as the destructive power of fossil fuels has become evident if nuclear energy is here to stay as it almost certainly is the question shifts to the waste issue surprisingly or perhaps not human thinking regarding how to dispose of nuclear waste hasn't changed much over the years the prevailing concept remains roughly the same digger giant hole throw it all in and cover it up and forget about it now we're being slightly facetious here but really not overly so most low-level waste uses near-surface disposal which as it sounds means the waste is stored below ground but still relatively close to the surface usually in the tens of meters this has been done in the czech republic finland france japan netherlands spain sweden the uk and the usa however storing high-level waste is quite a different matter this needs to be stored much further down and here is where the problems lie while numerous countries have explored the possibility and some have even selected sites only finland is nearing completion of its own deep geological disposal site for high level waste and do not worry we will certainly be elaborating on that later in today's video it is estimated that 22 000 cubic meters of high-level waste is currently awaiting storage across 14 western countries while the amount in china and russia remains unknown but is generally considered to be pretty substantial what is clear is that we have absolutely no idea what we're going to do with all of this waste in the long run as of early 2020 there were 57 nuclear plants in operation across the united states totaling roughly 20 of the nation's total energy output these reactors produce around 2 000 tons worth of waste every single year and that's on top of whatever comes from nuclear weapons there is a lot of waste in desperate need of a long-term home now before we get on to yucca mountain we should first talk about the waste isolation pilot plant wipp located 42 kilometers east of carlsbad new mexico the wipp is the world's third deep geological repository after the radioactive waste morslar ben repository and the charters ii salt mine both in germany and is licensed to store transuranic radioactive waste from the research and production of united states nuclear weapons for 10 000 years all three of these sites can accommodate low level or medium waste but not the most dangerous waste the waste is kept here in rooms 660 metres underground and is thought to have cost in the region of 19 billion dollars sometime between 2025 and 2035 when the plant reaches capacity the caverns will be collapsed and sealed over with 13 layers of concrete and soil and well that as they say will be that while the wipp is a start for vast amounts of american nuclear waste it's nowhere near enough which is why in the late 1970s the department of energy began exploring yucca mountain and if you want your website to look clean crisp and not at all like a nuclear waste depository it's time to head over to our friends at squarespace and that was quite the transition look the new year is just days away so whatever that new thing you're thinking about doing in that new year is well it's time to do it with squarespace squarespace is the platform to use when you're ready to get started on your next web project you're looking to get in and out quick without thinking too much about what your website should look like bam use one of their quick beautiful templates to make a website that's fresh for you or maybe you're more of 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launch and get started on our next project go to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com forward slash megaprojects and you'll save 10 of your first purchase of a website or a domain and let's go back to yucca mountain [Music] in 1978 yucca mountain joined a shortlist of 10 sites across six different states that would potentially be able to accommodate 77 000 tons of nuclear waste by 2015. by 1985 that number had been whittled down to just three and president reagan authorized extensive analysis of sites in hanford washington deaf smith county texas and yucca mountain two years later yucca mountain was the last man standing but even then things were still a long way off initially it had been hoped the yucca mountain could begin accepting nuclear waste in 1998 but that proved hopelessly optimistic a long preliminary tunnel was dug within the mountain and countless scientific surveys have been carried out to determine the feasibility of turning the depths of this mountain into the most radioactive spot on the planet on the 23rd of july 2002 president george w bush officially gave the go-ahead for the project but it hit a political brick wall almost immediately during the 2006 midterm elections harry reid nevada senator and fierce opponent of the yucca mountain project became senate majority leader and didn't take long to voice his position on the proposed repository side saying yucca mountain is dead it'll never happen as the united states and the rest of the world collapsed into recession it seemed the appetite for such a project began to dry up after stating on the campaign trail that he would effectively cancel the project if elected president obama was informed upon taking office that things were not quite that simple he couldn't simply cancel the project but he could choose to not renew federal funding which is exactly what he did in 2011. so really almost nothing has happened regarding the arc amounting repository in the last decade except for the painfully high compensation the government has been paid to utility companies for not supplying a repository as promised and the numbers here are quite extraordinary the us government is currently paying these companies between 300 and 500 million dollars per year to deal with their waste on their own accord by 2025 it's expected that the total figure will have reached 24 billion now it might be easy to grumble about greedy corporations here but the truth is the us government stated legally that yucca mountain would begin accepting waste in 1998. 22 years on not only is that still not happening that promise is costing a staggering amount of money the election of donald trump appeared to push the project back into favor but his administration's efforts stalled in the u.s senate trump then appeared to switch sides by stating that he agreed with the people of nevada and didn't want the site as a dumping ground but in 2018 things seemed to swing 180 with his administration once again pushing for yucca mountain to be used but yet again efforts ran into a brick rule and by 2019 the entire project just hangs in political limbo so we know that there isn't any nuclear waste in the complex but what exactly does lie within yucca mountain the main tunnel inside the complex is u-shaped eight kilometers long and 7.6 meters wide the tunnel was dug using a tunnel boring machine measuring 120 meters in length and costing 13 million dollars coming off the main tunnel are a series of alcoves where geological experiments took place the emplacement drifts tunnels cut off the main tunnel where nuclear waste would have been stored were never actually constructed this would have just been the start of the yucca mountain complex the repository has a statutory limit of 77 000 tons of waste but to reach this limit it would need to have been roughly 64 kilometers worth of tunnels so they're still quite short of that [Music] where to start on this one opposition for this project has been torrential from almost every corner consistent polls have shown that roughly two-thirds of those living in nevada are against the repository or should i say they're against the repository in their own state concerns have been raised about the environmental impact not necessarily now but in thousands of years the department of energy doe has stated that for the first ten thousand years the mean public dose of radiation would be 0.24 milligrams a year which would rise to 0.98 milligrams year after year both levels well within national safety guidelines to give you some good comparisons a hip x-ray results in a dose of around 83 milligrams while a ct head or chest scan is roughly 1110 and in fact there is natural radiation all around us it's estimated that the average u.s citizen experiences background radiation of roughly 350 milligrams without being anywhere near a nuclear facility then there was the question of scientific research as early as 2005 doubts were raised about the falsification of some of the quality assurance documents on water infiltration no significant proof was presented to back up these claims and a series of white papers and further research certainly appeared to suggest that there had been no wrong doing in 2006 an independent group sandia national laboratories was brought in with the hope of calming the debate once and for all and delivering a clear and honest assessment they did but it didn't work public opinion has hardened considerably on the subject and changing minds seems to be virtually impossible at this stage another contentious issue was how to transport all of this nuclear waste to yucca mountain a rail route was considered the most viable either through the caliente corridor or the mina corridor which would have required the permission of the department of defense and the walker river pay tribe whose territory the line runs through road routes were also explored but it was generally agreed where would be better if you thought the idea of storing nuclear waste in maine mountain was controversial the idea of high-level waste trundling past homes on railway lines proved unpalatable for many as well however just by the way an estimated 25 000 individual shipments of high-level waste have been made around the globe with zero incidents but let's be honest it's come down to politics and public opinion most people vehemently against the project and any politician who doesn't stand firmly against it is likely to see their dreams of a long political career cut rather short [Music] so we know that yucca mountain might never be a waste repository but what about what is happening in that other great nuclear superpower finland the information that finland is leading the way in terms of a waste repository might seem a little strange to some but when you think about it they do tend to have a habit of getting their act together up in scandinavia finland currently has four nuclear power stations generating 27 percent of finnish electricity and like other countries around the world they need to put their nuclear waste somewhere and that somewhere is on carlo tunnel a vast complex located 520 meters below the island of olgalutu 230 kilometers northwest of helsinki started in 2004 on carlo tunnel is now nearing completion and is expected to start receiving nuclear waste in 2023 where it will sit for an estimated period of a hundred thousand years so for the rest of the world take note that's how it's done [Music] okay so let's get back to nevada positions are now so firmly entrenched that it seems unlikely that yucca mountain is going to be used as a nuclear waste repository anytime soon but while nevada locals might celebrate that fact it still doesn't solve the dilemma of what to do with more than 90 000 tons of nuclear waste currently held in temporary storage facilities across the united states this is a major problem that needs addressing sooner rather than later as the world tries to wrestle itself away from fossil fuel addiction nuclear energy is likely to play an even greater role in the future whether we agree with it or not unless we suddenly find a miracle use for nuclear waste the united states is going to need to find a long-term repository quickly but let's be perfectly honest even if yucca mountain began taking waste tomorrow its storage capacity is limited and it's already less than the waste currently in the country what is terrifying is that these decisions made now will have potentially life-changing and even global changing effects in thousands of years to give you an example of this at the wipp which i mentioned earlier they have designed special warning signs for future civilizations which might stumble across the waste dump the signs include seven different languages english spanish russian french chinese arabic and navajo with space for further translation into future languages they also include pictures in case these languages can't be understood along with the scream the painting of edward monk a seemingly appropriate choice if you think about how quickly civilizations rise and fall in terms of global history that is it's perfectly conceivable that the world may have changed to such a degree that this spot might not even be considered the united states anymore now maybe we've destroyed the world and reverted to living in caves once again it certainly makes you think about the actions we take and their future consequences the squabbling over where to put this waste shows just how short-term humans can think the fact that we have been using nuclear power for so many years and still can't come to a consensus on what to do with the waste speaks volumes about just how muddled this topic has become around the world except in finland nuclear waste is a headache that is not going to go away anytime soon and as for yucca mountain well it looks like it's just going to stay a mountain so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below if you've got a suggestion for future mega projects use the comments below also please do check out our fantastic sponsor squarespace who i'm linking to below and thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 751,924

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Id: eWu_SOF_qvc

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 30 2020