Yucca Mountain

Publication date: November 2002

Summary
In July 2002 George Bush gave his formal backing for a giant nuclear waste dump in the Nevada Desert. Yucca Mountain is intended to house 70,000 metric tonnes of highly radioactive waste currently stored at USA's 103 nuclear waste sites. The nuclear industry worldwide wants to point to Yucca Mountain as a solution for dealing deadly nuclear waste, but this is far from the case. Not only is Yucca Mountain dangerously situated on a volcanic fault line, but the mountain itself will provide virtually no protection for the waste. Instead fifty million people will be put at risk from accidents and terrorist attack as the waste is regularly transported across America, just so nuclear operators can set about creating more space for more waste at US nuclear sites.