Some Political Logistics of Nuclear Waste

Pulsipher, Allan G.; ,

Some Political Logistics of Nuclear Waste

by Allan G. Pulsipher, Louisiana State Univ, Baton Rouge, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1991

Abstract:

The need for a centralized, federal, interim storage facility for nuclear waste, or MRS, alledgedly has become more urgent because the date for the opening of the permanent repository has been slipped from 2003 to 2010 at the earliest. However, a MRS constrained by the linkages in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act would make little sense and has no support. DOE wants to change the NWPAA linkages but unless the size of the MRS is constrained to approximately that now permitted, DOE's proposal would be so directly antithetical to the strategic vision and political aspirations of opponents of interim storage that it would seriously retard the development of the badly needed political consensus on national nuclear waste disposal policy. A new linkage, an acceptance rate limitation, is analyzed and the argument advanced that it would yield most of the benefits attributed to an MRS by DOE without aggravating the political concerns of MRS opponents.

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