ABSTRACT
The high-level nuclear waste (HLNW) management program in the United States is failing badly, beset by technical difficulties, poor management, scientific uncertainties, cost overruns, equivocal political support, state opposition, and profound public mistrust and antipathy. The attitude that HLNW disposal is merely a technical problem to be solved by experts must be abandoned. Many people associate nuclear wastes with danger and death and react to the idea of a HLNW repository with feelings of fear and dread. Flexible and realistic timetables would allow more time for further research to be done on technical problems associated with the repository and on comparative advantages and disadvantages of different geological structures. Characterizing a single site increases risks associated with relying most heavily on geologic structures, rather than engineered barriers to isolate wastes. A moratorium on geologic disposal would allow time to more carefully evaluate alternative techniques, such as seabed disposal.
