Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — No one knows what the Earth will be like in a million years. But a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada must be designed to ensure that people living near it then are exposed to no more than 100 millirems of radiation a year, equivalent to about a half-dozen X-rays.
After three years of deliberations, the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced its radiation health standard for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, a proposed system of underground caverns 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
It is scheduled to open in 2020 if a license application is approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
