[Rockhounds] Gemfield Mine, NV

[Nathan Martin]

Andrew,
Thanks for your informative posting.  One of the great things about this
email list is the opportunity to get clarification on subjects from people
who have first-hand knowledge of the subject.  Otherwise may hear only third
or fourth hand information and draw wrong conclusions.  We always need to
remain open to hearing the facts.  Thanks again.
Nate Martin
Lexington, MA

On 6/30/07, Andrew Turner <turnea55 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Without getting too political on the subject, I felt that I needed to
> clarify a little.  Please be aware that I am in no way trying to criticize
> anyone but rather add what I believe to be relavent information on the
> subject in order for people to get both sides.
>
> "Apparently, the
> >>guvmint decided to ignore the scientific reports on
> >>the instability of the subterranian strata creating a
> >>significant risk of leakage into the groundwater that
> >>feeds Las Vegas.  According to this link, they appear
> >>to have been dismissed or ignored and are proceeding
> >>full steam ahead"
>
> I would assume that you are not referring to tens of thousands of papers
> written about Yucca Mountain by geologists, physicists, biologists,
> chemists, materials research scientists, as well as structural,
> mechanical,
> mettallurgical, ceramic, and civil engineers (etc., etc.) that show that
> the
> repository location and conceptual model is signficantly safer and
> exponentially better than how spent nuclear fuel is currently stored (i.e.
> outside with very little safeguards and almost no barriers protecting it
> from entering the subsurface or groundwater).  Yucca Mountain is currently
> the most researched non-ore related geologic site in the world.  While
> there
> are some issues (an oxidizing environement being one of them), no one is
> dismissing science nor are they going full steam ahead (Yucca Mountain was
> supposed to open approximately 5 years ago).
>
> "creating a significant risk of leakage into the groundwater that
> >>feeds Las Vegas."
>
> I have written three publications (including my Master's thesis) on
> potential spent fuel radionuclide transport in the subsurface and
> groundwater at Yucca Mountain while getting funded by the Office of
> Civilian
> Radioactive Waste Management (part of the DOE), Argonne National
> Laboratory
> (where I did an internship), and the Missouri School of Mines.
>
> Water that drains from Yucca Mountain eventually makes it to Badwater
> Basin
> in Death Valley.  There are no perennial streams, major bodies of water,
> or
> wetlands within any of the withdrawal area.  No one (especially Vegas)
> obtains water from this area due to remoteness and extreme
> alkalinity.  The
> repository would be placed over 800 ft above the water table (and 1,000 ft
> underground).  This area receives between 4 and 10 inches of rain per
> year,
> with an evaporation potential of 66 inches.  Even during the wettest
> years,
> total infiltration of water into the repository area is expected to be
> about
> 4.7mm per year.  Meteoric water would not expect to reach the repository
> for
> tens of thousands of years at this rate.  After reaching the repository,
> water would need to come in contact with spent fuel (difficult considering
> the Alloy-22 outer waste package, stainless steel inner shell, and three
> alloy and steel lids), carry the dissolved radionuclides (many of which
> are
> not readily soluble) some 800 ft to the water table, then get carried at a
> very very slow rate to Death Valley for someone to even be potentially
> exposed to it (although drinking that water would kill you much quicker
> than
> the spent fuel radionuclides).
>
> "Three Mile Island at the meltdown"
> I won't argue the merits of whether Three Mile Island is considered a
> meltdown, but that really has nothing to do with the storage of spent
> nuclear fuel that has already been produced at nuclear reactors and
> government facilities in the country.  It has already been produced and
> needs to be stored and maintained even if nuclear technology is completely
> ended in this country.
>
> Andrew Turner
> Victorville, CA
>
> M.S.: Turner, AS, Synthesis of Uranium Phosphate Phases and Potetial
> Retardation Effects on Spent Fuel Radionuclides, University of
> Missouri-Rolla, 2003.
>
> Turner, AS and Wronkiewicz, DJ, Synthesis of uranium phosphate phases and
> potential retardation effects on spent fuel radionuclides. Geological
> Society of America Abstracts, 2002.
>
> Turner, AS and Wronkiewicz, DJ, Synthesis of uranium phosphate phases and
> potential retardation effects on spent fuel radionuclides. Scientific
> Basis
> for Nuclear Waste Management XXVI, V. 757, 2003.
>
>


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---