ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the concept of risk as a byproduct and external cost of scientific and technological advance. The idea of risk is difficult to grapple with, however, for it seems to have two distinct manifestations: its objective character and its subjective character. The failure of Waste Isolation Pilot Project highlights the dangers and dilemma of radioactive waste disposal in the United States. Disposing of radioactive materials safely poses several perplexing issues of risk management. Radioactive wastes range from gloves tainted with radioactive elements to the spent-fuel assemblies of nuclear reactors. Low-level radioactive wastes constitute the largest variety of waste products. Low-level wastes are not necessarily low-radiation wastes. In 1970, the Atomic Energy Commission designated a new category of radioactive waste called transuranic waste. Technically, transuranic wastes are those materials containing elements with atomic numbers higher than uranium. The final form of radioactive waste for which methods of disposal must be found is the nuclear reactors themselves.
