Pros and Cons of Storing Nuclear Waste at the Yucca Mountains.

Should Yucca Mountain be used to store nuclear waste? With the imminent license renewal of the majority of US nuclear power plants and the insistence of the Bush administration to build additional plants, the need for long-term storage of nuclear waste is greater than ever. Current estimates have the nation's 103 nuclear reactors producing 84,000 metric tons of waste by 2035 (Hansen, 2001). With the current containers either close to or completely filled, the Department of Energy has chosen …

…store most but not all of the nation's waste, it will allow the Department of Energy to test new technologies such as transmutation. This will allow for easier setup of future repositories and safer storage of future waste. Yucca Mountain is important to the future survival of nuclear power as effective energy. The site best fits all of the requirements needed to effectively store nuclear waste and will help guide future efforts for safe storage.