Nuclear Power

The U.S. Federal Government has allowed a 77,000 metric tons of radioactive waste to accumulate in storage areas all across this nation. Their current plan for dealing with this is to dig a single, centralized storage cave in Nevada. Despite strong opposition from the governor of Nevada, President Bush
has ordered the continued excavation and construction of the big storage cave at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The cost of the Yucca Mountain Project has recently been estimated at $100 billion.

Despite having spent $4 billion on a 20 year scientific study about the feasibility of such a massive storage facility, top nuclear scientists still disagree about one of the key aspects of the project.  Some scientist estimate that the proposed storage containers will last 100,000 years before leaking. This would make the storage of material which is radioactive for 10,000 years obviously safe. However, other top scientists forecast that the proposed storage containers will only last 1,000 years before leaking.

The great irony of our current situation is that the U.S. Congress canceled the internationally backed and co-funded Super  Conducting Super Collider project in the early 1990s because it was going to be $1 billion over its $10 billion budget.  Construction of the project's massive donut shaped tunnel started in Waxahachie, Texas. In a joint international effort,
a set of massive super-conducting magnets were invented and built. The purpose of the project was to prove the existence of the "top quark",  a sub-atomic particle. Observation of the characteristics of the top quark is needed to know the correct math needed to build a working hybrid nuclear reactor. A hybrid nuclear reactor would use both fusion and fission. This means that the radioactive "waste" from one half of the
reactor would be used as fuel for the other half of the reactor.  The net effect: no need to store 77,000 metric tons of radioactive waste for 10,000 years, just start feeding it into new hybrid reactors! To cleanup the SCSC site, the U.S. Federal Government spent several 100 million dollars to have the entire tunnel filled with gravel. The government said this would prevent vagrants and druggies from turning the tunnel into some sort of massive anti-social society. The government proceeded to give the land and facilities to the State of Texas. The State of Texas then gave the land and facilities to the County of Waxahachie, Texas.

But wait, you say. Isn't there a presidential moratorium against the construction of new nuclear reactors in the U.S. because of what happened at Three Mile Island? Yes.  However, President Bush is proposing to lift the ban and start the construction of many more nuclear power plants. President Bush is basing his proposal on his assertion that the scientific community has learned a lot about nuclear physics since the Three Mile Island incident.  Also, President Bush has responded to the conflicting scientific reports about the long-term stability of the proposed
storage container by saying that we can leave any needed cleanup of the Yucca Mountain site as a project for future scientists. Just leave a note on each container,  stating "may leak by 3002."

As a Libertarian, I am opposed to the use of taxation to pay for any nuclear or high-energy physics research, nuclear power plants, or nuclear storage facilities. Recently, the County of Waxahachie, Texas agreed to sell the site and its facilities for a few million dollars to a privately owned corporation to use for anti-terrorism training.

Obtaining the desired results of any scientific research project is obviously never a certainty. However, predicting the results of letting the U.S. Federal Government be responsible for the construction and operation of a massive central storage facility for nuclear waste in Nevada, based on questionable financial and scientific math, can be done. We will have left behind an
outrageously expensive time capsule bomb for some unfortunate future generation to open.