The network of more than 90km of tunnels planned for the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in the United States, as a repository for 77,000 tonnes of radioactive waste, (T&TI June 2002, p6), has faced further opposition in recent months.
The state of Nevada has filed six federal lawsuits against the project, including: permission to label the project unconstitutional and allow the state to halt all development and licensing work; and permission to refuse the government’s request to pump 530M litres of water per year to the repository.
One brief declared that the design is in breach of the 1982 Waste Act. It claimed that radiation will be six times higher than allowed after 1,000 years, if the storage containers fail. Also, the permeable ground would allow water to leach 400m from the tunnels to the water table within 50 years.
The repository is to be built at a cost of US$58bn over 22 years, as part of the National Energy Policy.
