I think that I would like to kick off my new column (many thanks to The Poly staff for their support) with an issue that has been eating at me for some time now. I also feel the need to, given the large amount of wind I have gathered over the past weeks on this topic, discuss it in stages.
First and foremost, how about that nuclear waste? Welcome to another exciting session of “Shaft the Shoshone Indians” brought to you by our federal government and its endless supply of bureaucracy. Since 1987, the sole site under consideration by our government for long-term disposal of nuclear waste has been the “permanent geologic repository” located at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Surprisingly enough, this site is located not in the President’s backyard in Texas, but on lands belonging to the Western Shoshone tribe. The state of Nevada has indicated that they intend to oppose the construction of any more nuclear waste sites placed in Nevada, stating that they intend to pursue whatever legal avenues are available. So what do they know that you don’t? Surely there must be some reason for such staunch opposition of this idea.
Perhaps it has something to do with the minor detail that Yucca Mountain is unsuitable as a prime nuclear waste repository according to the Department of Energy’s own standards? In the preliminary site analysis, it was found that fissures in the rock of Yucca would allow the escape of radioactive gases, introducing a potentially serious carcinogen, Carbon-14, into the local biosphere. Congress has moved quickly, however, to order the EPA to make an exception for Yucca Mountain.
More recently, it was discovered that these same fissures would allow the rapid diffusion of radioactive materials into the local ground- water system (I wonder where the Shoshone get their drinking water from, considering that nearly all drinking water in Nevada comes from underground aquifers). In addition, recent geologic reports suggest that Yucca Mountain is “as seismically active as the California Bay area.”
Quite shockingly, the DOE rewrote its own standards to fit the new situation. One of the best parallels to this kind of behavior that I have heard equates the EPA’s behavior with moving the goal in the middle of a hockey game.
Now, not only have we dumped the majority of the Indian population on lands we don’t want, but we are also going to try to saddle them with the waste of our shortsighted forays into nuclear energy production. So how does this affect you? Stay tuned next time for a discussion on just how this waste will arrive in Nevada.
