Can Nuclear Waste Keep Yucca Mountain Dry—and Safe?

摘要

Disposing of spent nuclear fuel by placing it deep in the earth is a race against time and corrosion—a race the designers of the proposed long-term nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nevada, know they will eventually lose. Thecentral scientific question in this controversial project isn't whether the waste will leach out of the large metal casks that contain it, but when. In that race, repository designers are looking for every advantage they can get— including the heat generated by the waste's own radioactive decay.