This typically means you either are not permitted to access the file or that the file could not be found. There are typically three reasons you would receive this error: the page you attempted to access does not exist. This could result from a number of causes including the file has moved or you did not have a complete or correct url. You attempted to access a password protected site and did not enter the correct password. You were trying to access a web page which can only be accessed from a computer on campus.

Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant Political Science

Among the web sites restricted in this manner is the uh network associates site license pages. To access network associates software, you must be on a uh system campus due to contractual restrictions in uh's agreement with network associates. Nuclear power plants produce more than 20 percent of the electricity used in the united states murray, 1989. Unfortunately, nuclear fission, the process used to create this large amount energy, creates significant amounts of high level radioactive waste. Commercial reactors as well as high level nuclear weapons waste, such as uranium and plutonium roush, 1995. Because of the build up of this waste, some power plants will be forced to shut down.

To avoid losing an important source of energy, a safe and economical place to keep this waste is necessary. This document proposes a literature review of whether yucca mountain is a suitable site for a nuclear waste repository. The proposed review will discuss the economical and environmental aspects of a national storage facility. This proposal includes my methods for gathering information, a schedule for completing the review, and my qualifications. On january 1, 1998, the department of energy doe must accept spent nuclear fuel from commercial plants for permanent storage clark, 1997.

Easy Things to Write An Essay On

There are many questions regarding the safety of the yucca mountain waste repository. Researchers at los alamos national laboratory disagree over the long term safety of the proposed high level nuclear waste site located in nevada. In 1994, charles bowman, a researcher at los alamos, developed a theory claiming that years of storing waste in the mountain may actually start a nuclear chain reaction and explode, similar to an atomic bomb taubes, 1995. The stir caused by theory suggests that researchers have not explored all sides of the safety issue concerning potentially hazardous situations at yucca mountain. Bowman's theory that yucca mountain could explode is based upon the idea that enough waste will eventually disperse through the rock to create a critical mass. A critical mass is an amount of fissile material, such as plutonium, containing enough mass to start a neutron chain reaction murray, 1989.

Bowman argues that if this chain reaction were started underground, the rocks in the ground would help keep the system compressed and speed up the chain reaction taubes, 1995. A chain reaction formed underground could then generate huge amounts of energy in a fraction of a second, resulting in a nuclear blast. A nuclear explosion of this magnitude would emit large amounts of radioactivity into the air and ground water.

Another safety concern is the possibility of a volcanic eruption in yucca mountain. The long term nuclear waste storage facility needs to remain stable for at least 10,0 years to allow the radioactive isotopes to decay to natural levels clark, 1997. There are at least a dozen young volcanoes within 40 kilometers of the proposed yucca mountain waste site weiss, 1996.

The proximity of yucca mountain to these volcanoes makes it possible to have a volcanic eruption pass through the spent fuel waste repository. Such a volcanic eruption could release damaging amounts of radioactivity to the environment. I propose to review the available literature about using yucca mountain as a possible repository for spent nuclear fuel. In this review i will achieve the following two goals: 1 explain the criteria for a suitable repository of high level radioactive waste and 2 determine whether yucca mountain meets these criteria.

According to the department of energy doe , a repository for high level radioactive waste must meet several criteria including safety, location, and economics roush, 1995. Safety includes not only the effect of the repository on people near the site, but also people along the transportation routes to the site. As far as location, a waste site cannot be in an area with a large population or near a ground water supply. Also, because one of the most significant factors in determining the life span of a possible repository is how long the waste storage canisters will remain in tact, the waste site must be located in a dry climate to eliminate the moisture that can cause the waste canisters to corrode. At present, the department of energy doe has spent more than 1.7 billion dollars on the yucca mountain project taubes, 1995.

For that reason, much pressure exists to select yucca mountain as a repository site otherwise, this money would have been wasted. For instance, how economical is it to transport radioactive waste across several states to a single national site? i will try to account for as many of these other costs as possible. After explaining the criteria, i will assess how well yucca mountain meets those criteria. Rather, i will discuss qualitatively how well yucca mountain meets each criterion. In some situations, disagreement exists among experts as to how well yucca mountain meets a criterion. Although many sites in the united states could meet the doe's established criteria, i will consider only yucca mountain because the doe is considering only yucca mountain taube, 1995.

This section presents my plan for obtaining the objectives discussed in the previous section. There has been an increase of interest in the nuclear industry concerning the yucca mountain site because of the january 1,1998, deadline for the doe. Several journal articles and papers discussing the possibility of yucca mountain as a spent fuel repository in our near future have surfaced as a consequence of that interest.