Editing Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository (section)

===Earthquakes===
The DOE has stated that seismic and [[tectonics|tectonic]] effects on the natural systems at Yucca Mountain will not significantly affect [[Seismic performance|repository performance]]. Yucca Mountain lies in a region of ongoing tectonic deformation, but the deformation rates are too slow to significantly affect the mountain during the 10,000-year regulatory compliance period. Rises in the water table caused by seismic activity would be, at most, a few tens of meters and would not reach the repository. The fractured and faulted volcanic tuff that Yucca Mountain comprises reflects the occurrence of many earthquake-faulting and strong ground motion events during the last several million years, and the hydrological characteristics of the rock would not be changed significantly by seismic events that may occur in the next 10,000 years. The engineered barrier system components will reportedly provide [[Earthquake engineering|substantial protection]] of the waste from seepage water, even under severe [[seismic loading]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ocrwm.doe.gov/documents/43222_tbd/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080126070554/http://ocrwm.doe.gov/documents/43222_tbd/index.htm |archive-date=January 26, 2008 |title=Technical Basis Document No. 14: Low Probability Seismic Events |publisher=[[U.S. Department of Energy]]|work=[[Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management]] |date=June 2004 |access-date=2010-03-27}}</ref>

In September 2007, it was discovered that the Bow Ridge fault line ran underneath the facility, hundreds of feet east of where it was originally thought to be located, beneath a storage pad where spent radioactive fuel canisters would be cooled before being sealed in a maze of tunnels. The discovery required several structures to be moved several hundred feet further to the east, and drew criticism from Robert R. Loux, then head of the [[Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects]], who argues that Yucca administrators should have known about the fault line's location years prior, and called the movement of the structures "just-in-time engineering."<ref>{{cite news |date=September 25, 2007 |title=Yucca Mt. adjusts to fault line |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-sep-25-na-yucca25-story.html |access-date=2010-03-27 |work=Los Angeles Times |location=Los Angeles, California}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Attewill |first=Fred |date=September 25, 2007 |title=US nuclear dump plan in danger after seismic shock |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/25/usa |access-date=2010-03-27 |work=The Guardian |location=London, England}}</ref>

In June 2008, a major nuclear equipment supplier, [[Holtec International]], criticized the DOE's safety plan for handling containers of radioactive waste before they are buried at the proposed Yucca Mountain Project. The concern is that, in an earthquake, the unanchored casks of nuclear waste material awaiting burial at Yucca Mountain could be sent into a "chaotic melee of bouncing and rolling [[juggernaut]]s".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-yucca6-2008jun06,0,5309730.story |title=Yucca Mountain safety plan is 'doomed,' nuclear company says |work=Los Angeles Times |date=June 6, 2008 |access-date=2010-03-27 |first=Ralph |last=Vartabedian}}</ref>