Technical Bases for Yucca Mountain Standards, Executive Summary

The United States currently has no place to dispose of the high-level radioactive waste
resulting from the production of the nuclear weapons and the operation of nuclear
electronic power plants. The only option under formal consideration at this time is to place
the waste in an underground geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. However,
there is strong public debate about whether such a repository could protect humans from
the radioactive waste that will be dangerous for many thousands of years. This book
shows the extent to which our scientific knowledge can guide the federal government in
developing a standard to protect the health of the public from wastes in such a repository
at Yucca Mountain. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is required to use the
recommendations presented in this book as it develops its standard.