Wasn’t this fund used to build Yucca Mountain, which is now mothballed, despite the fact that it is geologically the MOST ideal spot for such a thing?
As I understand it, yes to all of that. And still has $37 billion left.
The only thing that makes it most ideal is the relative absence of people next door...
We went over this in the 70s when I was in grad school, before Three Mile Island and a career track change.
Every long term disposal concept has its flaws.
The trick is to put it someplace where people and the waste aren't going to be in contact inadvertently in 10,000 years or so. When you consider climate changes in the last 10K years, people movements, and language changes, we really don't know what the next 10K years will bring in terms of technology, culture, behaviour, or whether there will be technical progression or regression.
That's a lot to plan for on the human end, but climate could change as well if there is an new Ice Age, if there are significant tectonic events, or other factors.
So the dry climate of today could be the rain forest of 3000 years from now. While we'll be long gone, the effects on the residents then might not be so ideal.
That is our responsibility, we made the mess and now we need to figure out how to safely inter it.