Dept of Energy Plans to Make Earthquake Prone Mt Into Nuclear Waste Depository!

[Bobbieo]

Geologists say there are thirteen different fault lines running through the mountain.

For those interested in the brief story go to:
http://nativeunity.blogspot.com
It is the second item on the page.

I think the DOE should move its permanent hdqs to the top of Yucca Mountain. There they can catch all the action!!!!

[Captain Angry]

1. At some point, we're going to have to come up with a safe place for that stuff.

If the Gov't wants to be serious about securing it, they need to put it somewhere it can be secured. Having waste materials at every plant leads to some potentially scary situations.

As the nuclear plants are private, they'll never spend what needs to be spent on keeping the stuff safe at their location.

So, the DOE needs to provide a solution that will work, and then bill the nuclear plants.

[happyslug]

2. The two safest sites are just politically unacceptable

The two most geography secure area in the world are the Appalachian Mountains and Siberia. These are two of the OLDEST areas on the Plant's surface as such their are the most stable and thus the less likely to have faults or other defects for the waste to be affects.

The problem with Siberia is the distance AND that it is undergoing gradual warming do to Global Warming. If the shortage site is buried deep enough not a problem, even if the glacial come back, all the ice will do is force the waste deeper into the earth (and if the glacial subsequent melt, push up to about were the mine would be now). The biggest problem is the distance, the need to build a railroad to where the most stable area is AND the fact that EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE IN RUSSIA. Not a good choice for NON-geological reasons.

The Appalachian Mountains are in a secure area of the world. The Appalachian Mountains are the OLDEST mountains in the the world (How the present Appalachian Mountains were formed when Africa broke off from North America is still not understood, but it replaced a plain that had developed after the original Appalachian Mountains had been eroded while North America and Africa were part of one continent (This original Appalachian Mountains chain was formed when Africa Ran into North America). Since Africa broke off from North America the Appalachian Mountains has been the most stable environment in the world, with both the East Coast and the Ohio-Mississippi River system being flooded AFTER that time period.

On top of the geological stability, the area has a lot of Clay soil from the time BEFORE the original Appalachian Mountains were formed. Clay is naturally a barrier to almost all liquid substances (Clay and Salt deposits are what Oil people look for when looking for oil, for Clay and Salt keep the liquid oil from oozing to the surface since the time the oil first became oil). The first Oil wells were in Western Pennsylvania do to the huge clay deposits in the area.

As you can see the stable area of the Appalachian Mountains and the clay makes the area ideal. The problem is, unlike the Western Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains has always had a huge human population (Going back to the time of the Native Americans). Furthermore the people in these areas have ALWAYS looked upon Governments from the east with Suspicion (This goes back to the days of indentured servants, when many such indentured servants ran away to the mountains to get away from bad masters, they became part of the community which came to protect them, and protecting meant opposition to their own Colonial Governments). The Railroads and the Coal Mines did not help the situation when it came to the issue of Trust, both abused the people in the Appalachian Mountains. So you have a high rural population area that distrusts the Government when the Government says something will be OK (and their trust the Government WAY before their trust Corporate America). On top of this most are armed and it does NOT take many people to stop an activity (Especially, if the local Juries oppose what the Defendant oppose). This was the first objection, that the Government will have to convince these people what is being done is necessary, if the Government does that the people of the Appalachian Mountains will support what the Government wants to do, but it requires showing it will cause them no harm AND somehow helps them (This is how the Coal Industry did it, offering jobs and cash, and only pulling both after their were already established in the area). Please note most coal is mined on either side of the Appalachian Mountains not within the mountains themselves. Thus we should look at the area where no coal exists.

Pennsylvania Coal Fields:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/maps/map11.pdf

Geological maps of Pennsylvania:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pub/map/map_online.aspx

The Second set of problem is the old Coal mines. No one knows where ALL of them are, mine maps are known to be in error (and this seems to have been deliberate to Maximum profits when the mines were being operated). There are cases where land was mined that the mine owner had to right to mine, they just took it for the land owner had no way to find out his or her land was being undermined if the mine was deep enough (Cross-shafting was NOT a safety shaft, but a way to steal coal). Thus you have to do extensive drilling to make sure no mines were in the area, and if you find an old mine, the Government MUST sell it off. The underground water flows from these abandoned mines are a huge source of Acid Mine Run off, but if sealed not a problem (Seal to water getting in and getting out).

US Atlas Map for Seismic Hazard Map:


http://nationalatlas.gov/mld/seihazp.html

For more maps on the US:
http://nationalatlas.gov/natlas/Natlasstart.asp

Based on these maps the best area is Minnesota, Wisconsin and the surrounding area, but all these areas are also very good farm land, which means soil that water can migrate through. Furthermore these area have much more mix of above bedrock material than does Pennsylvania, which makes it even harder to keep the subject matter isolated, See the following for details:
http://nationalatlas.gov/mld/sfgeoep.html