Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Nuclear Waste Storage in Skull Valley The Atom Safety and Licensing Board issued a ruling yesterday that temporarily derailed PFS' efforts to approve a nuclear waste storage facility in Utah's Skull Valley.  A primary rationale for the ruling was the likelihood of an F-16 (a single-engine military jet) crashing into the facility.  The Skull Valley facility sits under the airway that pilots use to fly thousands of F-16s a year from Hill Air Force Base down Skull Valley to the military’s Utah Test and Training Range. The NRC maintains an online document library (Agency Documents Access and Management System - ADAMS).  ADAMS is full searchable and contains hundreds of documents related to the Skull Valley case. The Licensing Board’s ruling leaves room for the facility to receive later NRC licensing approval if either: (1) PFS can convince the Air Force to reduce the number, and/or to alter the pattern, of F-16 flights over Skull Valley; or (2) PFS can show that the design of the facility’s storage structures is so robust that an F-16 crash would not have appreciable health and safety consequences. Skull Valley is proposed to be a temporary storage facility awaiting the completion of Yucca Mountain in Nevada.  "Why Yucca Mountain" brochure Check where you live in relation to Yucca Mtn. nuclear waste disposal transportation routes. 11:44:19 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.