Proposed Yucca Mountain Standards to Protect Public Health For a Million Years:
EPA is proposing public health standards for the planned high-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada that will protect public health for 1 million years. Under the standards, people living close to the facility would not receive total radiation higher than natural levels people experience routinely in other areas of the country.
But when we discount the future at rates of 2% and 7%, the present value of $12 trillion worth of annual safety benefits, roughly the annual U.S. GDP (a bit more than the true net benefits of storing nuclear waste safely), is worth less than a penny after 1789 and 524 years, respectively.
1 million is a lot longer than 1789 years. Aren't we being a little over-cautious here? [he says with tongue firmly planted in his cheek]