Editorial: Another report tells of danger at Yucca

Friday, Aug. 2, 2002 | 4:03 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: August 4, 2002

Yucca Mountain is not getting any safer as more scientific papers are published. It's an attractive subject for scientists, whose research is stimulated by the federal government's vision of Yucca as the burial ground for the nation's high-level nuclear waste. Previous papers have documented groundwater contamination and earthquake risk. Now we're hearing more information about the danger posed by volcanoes.

In a July report, scientists with the American Geophysical Union wrote about the seven dormant volcanoes within 27 miles of Yucca. If they were to erupt, lava could fill Yucca's tunnels and burial vaults within hours, the scientists wrote. If eruptions take place within the next 10,000 years -- the minimum time the waste would need to become harmless -- radioactive waste could reach the surface after the lava's intense heat cracked the canisters containing it. The report says the chances of this are remote -- the last eruption was 80,000 years ago. Yet, there is a chance. The report is one more reminder that those who insist the mountain will be safe for such concentrated storage of Earth's most dangerous substance are wrong -- dead wrong.