Fuel Cycle to Nowhere

U.S. Law and Policy on Nuclear Waste

Richard Burleson Stewart, Jane Bloom Stewart, Richard Stewart

• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780826517746, 9780826517746
• eBook ISBN: 9780826517760
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

For twenty-five years, the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada was designated as the sole destination for disposal of the nation's accumulated stockpiles of highly radioactive nuclear power and weapons wastes. Now the Obama administration has abandoned Yucca, and Congress must pass new laws to solve the resulting disposal crisis. Even as the federal government seeks to expand nuclear power, local communities and states are demanding a credible program for disposal of the wastes that we already have. The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, appointed by the Obama administration to develop a plan, is currently conducting hearings.

The first comprehensive history and overview of U.S. nuclear waste law and regulation, Fuel Cycle to Nowhere traces sixty years of nuclear weapons programs, the growth of nuclear power, and their waste legacies, the rise of environmentalism, and the responses of federal agencies. Richard and Jane Stewart expertly analyze the changing policies for storing low-level waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, and high-level waste and for regulating their transport by rail and by truck. They also chronicle "a tale of two repositories"--one, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, known as WIPP, the world's only operating deep geologic nuclear waste disposal facility, which emerged from a contentious but ultimately successful struggle between federal and state interests; the other, Yucca Mountain, mandated top down by Congress and a failure.

Fuel Cycle to Nowhere provides the critical information and analysis on the waste disposal issues and solutions that the commission, Congress, the administration, journalists, policymakers, and the public so urgently need.

This book is a project of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), a Vanderbilt University-led, multi-university consortium supported as a cooperative agreement by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental This book is a project of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), a Vanderbilt University-led, multi-university consortium supported as a cooperative agreement by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management to support safe, effective, publicly credible, risk informed management of existing and future nuclear waste from government and civilian sources through independent strategic analysis, review, applied research and education.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. The Evolution of U.S. Nuclear Waste Law and Policy
• 2. Radioactive Waste Classification and Regulation
• 3. Nuclear Waste Transport
• 4. Low-Level Waste Disposal
• 5. WIPP: The Rocky Road to Success
• 6. Yucca Mountain: Blueprint for Failure
• 7. Options for Orphan Wastes
• 8. Nuclear Waste in the United States: Lessons Learned and Future Choices
• Appendix A: Operating U.S. Nuclear Power Units by Year
• Appendix B: Uranium Oxide Spot Prices (per pound)
• Appendix C: The Hanford Waste Cleanup Agreement and Program
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index