NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey While lawyers, senators and even an occasional geologist argue over whether Yucca Mountain in Nevada is a suitable place to store nuclear waste, scientific entrepreneurs are focusing on a finer detail: how the waste can be packaged to isolate it for 10,000 years.
The Senate's approval of Yucca on July 9 makes the question urgent. So far, the U.S. Energy Department, which is in charge of Yucca, has chosen convent-ional materials; its current plan is for a cask made of steel alloyed with chrome, molybdenum and nickel, called alloy 22, and a titanium tent above that.
The department says it needs 10,000 packages, and plans to spend about $500,000 a pkge, so the financial incentives are significant. Some scientists doubt that anything metal can sit for thousands of years without rusting in rock that has rainwater percolating through it.
A few are offering alternatives, incl. recently developed ceramics and polymers.. [Watch this space for more soon]
(ex: NYT - thurs)
ENDS 1 - jsp.