NationStates Jolt Archive

I got in a debate with a friend over Yucca Mountain. For those who don't know, the United States Government wants to permanently store massive quantities of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, which is less than 100 miles from where I live. I said that it was foolish to transport all that nuclear waste to that one place. Not only is it hard to predict what the waste could do to the cannisters over the course of the thousands, maybe millions, of years it would take for the waste to not be radioactive anymore, but it would be vulnerable to possible sabatoge, whether from foreign terror groups or home-grown nutjobs, while it is being transported all those thousands of miles, all by land. Instead of burying it in a mountain above underground water and forgetting about it, we should be working on how to either reuse it, make it not radioactive fast, or sending it into deep space (maybe into the sun. It's already nuclear).

Well, long story short, the debate isn't over. It's just on pause. Anyway, tlaking to my friend, who you don't need to know, made me realize how much I suck at debate. I need some help getting some Yucca facts because I hate losing debates and the last time I did a google search, I discovered port sites featuring Mickey the Mouse ripoffs. You can't use porn sites in a non-porn related debate. Plus, all the nonporn sites were so partisan and biased, You'd swear they were making it up.

Welcome to debate hell.

I'm long familiar with this forum. Before Hoyteca lived, I had another username for over a year. I eventually forgot to do stuff with it and it died, along with my entire community of Corneria. RIP Corneria. Long live CorneriaII.

Anyway, I asked for help, not the welcoming comittee.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR1674.pdf

Well, for one the cost of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain actually costs about 7 times more than the cost of expanding storage on site at nuclear plants. And, unlike YM, the nuclear plant storage is already proven to be completely safe and poses no risks of radiation leakage or natural disaster.

If anything, storing it at plants makes more sense because improvements in reprocessing technology would enable them to use that waste without the risk of having to transport it over land to and from Yucca Mountain. We're developing a lot of new ways to use that waste (of which some 95% is actually usable fuel) to generate electricity, cutting down on its radioactivity and quantity at the same time while reducing the need for new uranium.

Yucca Mountain seems like a 20th-century solution that does not fall in line with new technological developments in nuclear power.

Whenever you want to know something remember these three words:

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain), Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain), Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain).

I thought internet nerds hated wikipedia?

I thought internet nerds hated wikipedia?

Me? I love Wikipedia. Beats having to boot up Encarta or EB any day of the week, and it's a lot more comprehensive and up to date than either of them.

I thought internet nerds hated wikipedia?

No, it's us arrogant academics who also HAPPEN to be internet nerds who abhor wiki! :D

No, it's us arrogant academics who also HAPPEN to be internet nerds who abhor wiki! :D

Actually - even that's not true. The problem with Wiki is only really when it is used as the only source. It's still a really good place to start.

On the topic, the biggest problem I can see with the Yucca situation is that we live in a nation with two big problems: 1) a tendency for government agencies to let work go to their buddies, rather than to people who might be best qualified to do the job right; 2) a tendency to opt for the 'lowest quote', without too much concern for things like aftercare or what that quote gets you.

Add those to a facility designed to hold huge amounts of nuclear waste, and being constructed by who-knows-who (seriously - ignoring the engineers and architects, what kind of control usually accompanies these big projects?), and I think we have the potential for an unpleasant situation.

Well, long story short, the debate isn't over. It's just on pause. Anyway, tlaking to my friend, who you don't need to know, made me realize how much I suck at debate. I need some help getting some Yucca facts because I hate losing debates and the last time I did a google search, I discovered port sites featuring Mickey the Mouse ripoffs. You can't use porn sites in a non-porn related debate. Plus, all the nonporn sites were so partisan and biased, You'd swear they were making it up.
Well if it wasn't for porn Minnie Mouse would never have made it in Walt Disney.

you should welcome the nuclear waste with open arm's, if you're lucky you might get some on you and develop super powers :)

Actually - even that's not true. The problem with Wiki is only really when it is used as the only source. It's still a really good place to start.

Indeed, indeed. If it's simply for basic information and as a jumping off point, and not as a source, it's pretty good.

There is also the problem of going over a source of water that goes to 100 million Americans homes, the mississippi river. all of the East coast waste has to go through it. and/or Chicago, but the mayor there is not going to allow it, the whole city is up in arms.