The Yucca Mountain Standard: Proposals for Leniency

Abstract

AbstractThe proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste needs an official standard to protect the public from release of radioactivity. Standards proposed by the U.S. Congress, the nuclear industry (NEI), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the TYMS Committee of the National Research Council (NRC) are reviewed. Each of these proposals would introduce a degree of leniency not heretofore experienced in radiation protection. No adequate scientific justification is presented. Some scientifically invalid proposals are said to be justified on the grounds of policy. Most leading industrial nations are designing geologic repositories to meet the traditional criteria for safety and for protecting public health, including quantitative calculations of doses for the periods when significant doses can occur, rather than stopping calculations at 10,000 years as many in the U.S. would have us do. There is no evidence that they are seriously seeking more lenient standards for public health protection. The U.S. has the resources and skills to protect future people from our waste with the same care that we now protect the public from radiation. We should assert our will to do so. The Yucca Mountain project will be seriously damaged if it is directed to depart from the traditional conservative criteria for determining safety and protection of public health, criteria that are adopted in other countries working on geologic disposal.