Yucca Mountain
“What part of ‘I’m not for Yucca’ do you not understand?” said an exasperated Mr. Obama.
Yucca Mountain Repository is the proposed United States Department of Energy deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel and other radioactive waste. The repository is located in Nye County, Nevada, about 80 miles from the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The repository lies within Yucca Mountain, a ridge line in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The ridge is composed of volcanic material (mostly tuff) ejected from a now extinct caldera-forming supervolcano.
The idea of storing radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain is controversial. Opponents argue that climate, erosion, earthquakes, and other natural forces would make it an unstable and unsuitable place for storage. The Department of Energy was to begin accepting spent fuel at the Yucca Mountain Repository by January 31, 1998 but has yet to do so because of a series of delays due to legal challenges, allegations of fraudulent geologic analysis, concerns over how to transport nuclear waste to the facility, and political pressures resulting in underfunding of the construction. There is currently no official date set for opening the facility. -from wikipedia
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