Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
SDA Vol. 6 No. 1
WANTED:
Sound Radioactive Waste Management Policy
Chemists and chemical engineers were not interested in dealing with waste. It was not glamorous; there were no careers; it was messy; nobody got brownie points for caring about nuclear waste... The central point is that there was no real interest or profit in dealing with the back end of the fuel cycle. --Carroll Wilson, first general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, 19791 The first high-level radioactive wastes were produced during World War II as a result of plutonium production during the Manhattan Project. These wastes were placed in temporary storage tanks with little thought as to how they would be managed or disposed of in the long-term. That approach may have been understandable as part of the exigencies of war. But in the decades that followed, the same relative neglect of nuclear waste management persisted. Today, after dozens of studies, and tremendous expense, waste management continues to be poor, and long-lived radioactive wastes from military and commercial activities continue to pose serious safety, health, and environmental risks. In 1992 IEER conducted a study analyzing the management of long-lived radioactive wastes.2 Five years later, our conclusions remain essentially the same. This newsletter reviews and updates our earlier findings on nuclear waste management policy, and, in light of proposed policy changes, offers suggestions for an alternative approach.
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Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Comments to Outreach Coordinator: ieer@ieer.org
Takoma Park, Maryland, USA
October, 1997
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