1. Presented By Mary Morrison
Environmental Ethics of the proposed Geological Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain
Presented By
Mary Morrison

2. The Issue
What is the issue: High level Nuclear Waste is accumulating at nuclear power plants across the nation.

3. Disposal Options Drilling down into the ocean floor
Burying it in the polar ice sheets
Storing it in a geological repository
Leaving it in current locations

4. Why Yucca Mountain? Remote Location Arid Climate Geological Frame Work
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
amended 1987

5. Site Characteristic Analysis
Hydrology
Seismic
Volcanic
Climatic

6. Storage Process Vitrified process at existing site
Stored in stainless steel canisters at existing site
Canisters are covered with drip shields at Yucca Mountain
Waste is stored in underground tunnels

7. Ethical Issues How safe will the repository be?
Intergenerational Equity
Native Shoshone
Estimating Risk
Technical Community vs. Environmentalist

8. Conclusion
“Do not do to future generations what earlier generations of deciders from did to us when they committed to a nuclear future. Disposal is as fateful a decision as the earlier one because it launches us upon an incalculable, potentially catastrophic, and possible irreversible course. It is therefore not right or safe or wise to launch until we must. That is the paramount ethical principle now” - Lois Wilson - (Nuclear Waste Exploring the Ethical Dilemmas).