ABSTRACT
The technological complexity of high-level nuclear waste (HLNW) disposal forces reliance on scientific research and technical assessment to develop knowledge and expertise. Complexity and uncertainty seem destined to remain on the agenda; the repository program should be viewed more as an experiment than as an established technological undertaking. However, a wise public policy must clearly face the implications of uncertainty and provide reasonable assurances of safety to human health and the environment. Managers in institutions confronted with high levels of uncertainty react in various ways, most of them counterproductive: firing the bearers of bad news, obfuscation, repression, reassurance, and firefighting. Geological isolation of HLNW can be considered a form of reverse mining, in that something is put into the mine rather than extracted. An entirely different set of uncertainties is associated with potential future human intrusion into the Yucca Mountain site.
