Yucca “Mountain” is a desert ridge of dry ash flow tuff, only 4,960 feet elevation at the top.  Rainfall is 7 inches a year.  The repository is 200-900 feet under the surface, 900 feet above the water table.

Board members and staff of The Long Now Foundation entering the Yucca Mountain Respository north portal in February 2002.  From the left: Jim Mason, Peter Schwartz, Kurt Bollacher, Kevin Kelly, guest Pierre Omidyar, Alexander Rose, Danny Hillis; I took the picture.  Board member Brian Eno was on the trip but  was not allowed at Yucca on account of being an alien (Brit).

The long, straight train ride into the mountain to the repository area.

Danny Hillis and Alexander Rose examine the heating apparatus and readout for a test of the heat effects on a repository drift and water flow over the first 1,000 years of nuclear waste storage.

Kevin Kelly atop Yucca Mountain looking northwest.