Global Security Newswire
Daily News on Nuclear, Biological & Chemical Weapons, Terrorism and Related Issues
U.S. Pushes Forward With Yucca Mountain, Despite Federal Appellate Court Ruling
The U.S. government will continue development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository in Nevada despite a recent court ruling requiring the U.S. government to increase safeguards against nuclear leaks, Reuters reported today (see GSN, June 10).
“We are still on track toward submitting a license application in December of this year, and opening the repository and beginning waste acceptance in 2010,” Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow said during a Senate Energy Committee Hearing.
The U.S. Court of Appeals last week blocked Nevada’s efforts to stop plans to store 77,000 tons of nuclear power and defense waste at the facility. The court, however, ruled that the Bush administration had ignored National Academy of Sciences safety recommendations and must provide safeguards against radiation leaks that could peak in 300,000 years, Reuters reported.
It would be “impossible” to provide protection over 300 millennia, said Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) (Reuters/CNN.com, July 15).
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NTI Analysis
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Next Steps in Reducing Nuclear Risks: The Pace of Nonproliferation Work Today Doesn't Match the Urgency of the Threat
March 5, 2013
The fifth in a series of Wall Street Journal op-eds calling for bold action to reduce nuclear dangers.
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U.S. Nuclear Cooperation as Nonproliferation: Reforms, or the Devil You Know?
Nov. 27, 2012
Several U.S. bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements are set to expire in the next four years, and a long list of nuclear newcomers are interested in concluding new agreements with the United States. Jessica C. Varnum examines the debate over whether stricter nonproliferation preconditions for concluding these new and renewal "123" nuclear cooperation agreements with the United States would enhance or undermine their value as instruments of U.S. nonproliferation policy.
Country Profile
United States
This article provides an overview of the United States’ historical and current policies relating to nuclear, chemical, biological and missile proliferation.
