Letter: Many questions still on Yucca Mountain

Yucca Mountain as seen through the eyes of a concerned citizen.

The first report written by the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board was sent to Congress and the Department of Energy (DOE) March 1990. Ten years have gone by and in the current tests performed, it has been found that using C-22 Alloy as an outer layer of protective covering for the container, stress cracking and pothole corrosion was observed. In reality, this test failure proves that leakage of radiation material could occur in the not too distant future.

Radiation Standards - Can you believe it, the question arose by the board; should we have a hot repository or a cooler repository design in order to meet the required radiation standards? Would the DOE be willing to pay the $2 billion additional cost to ensure the people of Nevada would not suffer radiation exposure? Or would they just lower the EPA radiation standards? Have you ever listened to a young person scream from the pain of radiation exposure? Or have you ever spoken to the children who were 5 and 6 years of age during the Nevada Test Site bombings? They can be contacted in the state of Montana, suffering from thyroid problems. These individuals now carry the genes into future generations.

Do the contractors have a contact with Mother Nature that implies no water will seep into the repository drifts, and it will not affect the ground water, and that there will be no additional fractures below the earth to mess up any contaminated waste packages? There also appears to be a very serious problem of repository performance. According to the board, "there are critical weaknesses in the repository design." When will the contractors have an answer to this problem? These comments are only a small portion of the uncertainties mentioned in the most current presentation by the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.

An interesting footnote: A trench will be built in Reno to lower the railroad tracks in an effort to make it safer to transport the high level nuclear hazardous waste through the streets of Reno. Are the railroad companies assuming these shipments are a done deal?

SHIRLEY SWAFFORD

Carson City