The Road to Yucca Mountain: The Development of Radioactive Waste Policy in the United States

by J. Samuel Walker

Overview

In The Road to Yucca Mountain, J. Samuel Walker traces the U.S. government's tangled efforts to solve the technical and political problems associated with radioactive waste. From the Manhattan Project through the designation in 1987 of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a high-level waste repository, Walker thoroughly investigates the approaches adopted by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). He explains the growing criticism of the AEC's waste programs, such as the AEC's embarrassing failure in its first serious effort to build a high-level waste repository in a Kansas salt mine. Clearly and accessibly, Walker explains the issues surrounding deep geological disposal and surface storage of high-level waste and spent reactor fuel. He analyzes the equally complex and divisive question of fuel “reprocessing.” He weaves reliable research with fresh insights about nuclear science, geology, politics, and public administration, making this original and authoritative account an essential guide for understanding the continuing controversy over an illusive and emotional topic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520260450
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	09/02/2009
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

J. Samuel Walker is the historian of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He is the author of Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective and Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century as well as Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment, 1963-1971, all from UC Press.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface

1. A Solvable Problem
2. A “Huge and Ever-Increasing Problem”
3. An “Atomic Garbage Dump” for Kansas
4. New Directions in Radioactive Waste Management
5. Progressing toward Stalemate
6. Commercial Low-Level Waste: A "Once Low Priority Matter"
7. The Transportation of Nuclear Waste
8. A Legislative “Solution”

Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A valuable account of the history/ongoing issues related to this significant problem. . . . Recommended."—Choice

"An excellent resource."—Enterprise & Society

"Engaging, concise, and disturbing."—Metascience

"Walker's history of U.S. nuclear waste management provides a clear reminder of the potential pitfalls of disposal of this material...to ignore these is to invite failure yet again."—Journal of American History

"Walker has demonstrated that there is an important place for public history in the scholarly arena. . . . Well-researched, objective, and informative."—Technology And Culture

Editorial Reviews

Engaging, concise, and disturbing.

Metascience

Walker’s history of U.S. nuclear waste management provides a clear reminder of the potential pitfalls of disposal of this material...to ignore these is to invite failure yet again.

Journal Of American History

An excellent resource.

Enterprise & Society

A valuable account of the history/ongoing issues related to this significant problem. . . . Recommended.

Choice

Walker has demonstrated that there is an important place for public history in the scholarly arena. . . . Well-researched, objective, and informative.

Technology And Culture