Can someone explain why people are upset Obama wont put Nuclear waste on a Fault Line?

[LeftyAndProud60]

I'm just finding out about people being pissed over him cutting funding for Yucca Mountain. His reasoning seems pretty good. It's built on a damn fault line. THat can't be safe.

[DeSwiss]

1. I would imagine it's because.....

...no one wants the waste in their backyard. Which is the inherent problem in using nuclear material as a energy source. No one wants the waste after the fuel rods are depleted because their toxicity lasts a long time. So it's a NIMBY reaction.

- And it's one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browns_Ferry_Nuclear_Power_Plant">I can relate to, particularly when there are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_energy">alternatives we haven't even begun to tap nor develop yet to their fullest potential....

[LeftyAndProud60]

2. But on a fault line? That's crazy. Who authorized it to be built in the first place?

More research should have been done before they wasted money. Had to be Bush.

[DeSwiss]

4. You got it. Bush siged it into law in 2002.

As for the seismic activity, I believe Nevada ranks at the top at third in seismic activity compared to other states. But the DOE approved it by claiming that any earthquakes there wouldn't have any deleterious effects on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in part because it'd be located deep under ground and inside a mountain and because "tectonic deformation rates are too slow." There's a lot of info to be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain">Wiki on the subject.

And further, the DOE has no credibility as far as I'm concerned. Not after Three Mile Island and Browns Ferry, and more recently, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100215/NEWS02/100214034/Blowing-the-whistle-on-Vermont-Yankee">Vermont Yankee.

- And as with the FDA, the DOE is little more than revolving door for careerists who first work for the government, and then later for the same energy companies they used to regulate as they get close to retirement.

[DailyGrind51]

3. There is a fault line in southern Illinois, also!

[DeSwiss]

5. Yep, the New Madrid Fault.

I've felt earthquakes and tremors from that one before. And geologists are saying that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_Seismic_Zone">New Madrid its over due.

- The last time it struck with a big one, it is said that it reversed the flow of the Mississippi River. That's one I hope I don't feel.....


On edit: spelling