This book examines the complex political, legal, and scientific issues relating to the disposal of nuclear waste, an issue that is gaining attention as demands for energy increase exponentially.

This volume examines the national plans that ten Euratom countries plus Switzerland and the United States are developing to address high-level radioactive waste storage and disposal. The chapters, which were written by 23 international experts, outline European and national regulations, technology choices, safety criteria, monitoring systems, compensation schemes, institutional structures, and approaches to public involvement. Key stakeholders, their values and interests are introduced, the responsibilities and authority of different actors considered, decision-making processes are analyzed as well as the factors influencing different national policy choices. The views and expectations of different communities regarding participatory decision making and compensation and the steps that have been or are being taken to promote dialogue and constructive problem-solving are also considered.​

This is volume two of a comparative analysis of nuclear waste governance and public participation in decision-making regarding the storage and siting of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel in different countries. The contributors examine both the historical and current approaches countries have taken to address the wicked challenge of nuclear waste governance. The analyses discuss the regulations, technology choices, safety criteria, costs and financing issues, compensation schemes, institutional structures, and approaches to public participation found in each country.

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.

A provocative history of nuclear power explores the pros and cons of nuclear energy as a power source that has given way to international tension and weapons development, in a critical assessment that also considers nuclear energy's possible role in countering global warming.

Passed in 1982, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) was an effort to establish an explicit statutory basis for the Dept. of Energy (DoE) to dispose of the nation's most highly radioactive nuclear waste. The NWPA requires DoE to remove spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and transport it to a permanent geologic repository. In 1987, Congress designated Yucca Mountain, NV (YM), as the repository. Contents of this report: Intro.; Establishing a Permanent Geologic Repository for High-Level Nuclear Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel; YM and the Obama Admin.; Blue Ribbon Comm. on America's Nuclear Future; Withdrawal of the YM Construction License; NRC Halts YM License Review; The Future of YM. A print on demand report.

Nearly 40 years after the concept of finite deterrence was popularized by the Johnson administration, nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) thinking appears to be in decline. The United States has rejected the notion that threatening population centers with nuclear attacks is a legitimate way to assure deterrence. Most recently, it withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, an agreement based on MAD. American opposition to MAD also is reflected in the Bush administration's desire to develop smaller, more accurate nuclear weapons that would reduce the number of innocent civilians killed in a nuclear strike. Still, MAD is influential in a number of ways. First, other countries, like China, have not abandoned the idea that holding their adversaries' cities at risk is necessary to assure their own strategic security. Nor have U.S. and allied security officials and experts fully abandoned the idea. At a minimum, acquiring nuclear weapons is still viewed as being sensible to face off a hostile neighbor that might strike one's own cities. Thus, our diplomats have been warning China that Japan would be under tremendous pressure to go nuclear if North Korea persisted in acquiring a few crude weapons of its own. Similarly, Israeli officials have long argued, without criticism, that they would not be second in acquiring nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Indeed, given that Israelis surrounded by enemies that would not hesitate to destroy its population if they could, Washington finds Israel's retention of a significant nuclear capability totally "understandable."

The question of what to do with radioactive waste has dogged political administrations of nuclear-powered electricity-producing nations since the inception of the technology in the 1950s. As the issue rises to the forefront of current energy and environmental policy debates, a critical policy analysis of radioactive waste management in the UK provides important insights for the future. Nuclear Waste Politics sets out a detailed historical and social scientific analysis of radioactive waste management and disposal in the UK from the 1950s up to the present day; drawing international comparisons with Sweden, Finland, Canada and the US. A theoretical framework is presented for analysing nuclear politics: blending literatures on technology policy, environmental ethics and the geography and politics of scale. The book proffers a new theory of "ethical incrementalism" and practical policy suggestions to facilitate a fair and efficient siting process for radioactive waste management facilities. The book argues that a move away from centralised, high capital investment national siting towards a regional approach using deep borehole disposal, could resolve many of the problems that the high stakes, inflexible "megaproject" approach has caused across the world. This book is an important resource for academics and researchers in the areas of environmental management, energy policy, and science and technology studies.

This book is the last part of a trilogy and concludes a long-term project that focussed on nuclear waste governance in 24 countries. It deals with core themes of the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), e.g. the wicked problems of housing nuclear waste disposal facilities, public participation and public discourse, voluntarism and compensation in siting as well as the role of advisory bodies and commissions. The volume reflects on the diverse factors that shape the debate on what can be considered an ”acceptable solution” and on various strategies adopted in order to minimise conflicts and possibly increase acceptability. The various theoretical and empirical contributions shed light on several mechanisms and issues touched upon in these strategies, such as the role of trust, voluntarism, economic interests at stake, compensation, ethics, governance, and participation.

Our civilisation stands on the brink of catastrophe. Our thirst for energy has led to threats from global warming, nuclear disaster and conflict in oil-rich countries. We are running out of options. Solar power, Keith Barnham argues, is the answer. In this eye-opening book, he shows how a solar revolution is developing based on one of Einstein's lesser known discoveries, one that gave us laptop computers and mobile phones. An accessible guide to renewable technology and a hard-hitting critique of the arguments of solar sceptics, The Burning Answer outlines a future in which the fuel for electric cars will be generated on our rooftops. It is, above all, an impassioned call to arms to join the solar revolution before it's too late.