Abstract
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed that the first geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste in the United States be sited at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Repository sitting was exempted by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act from the requirements for an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and, additionally, the DOE was prohibited by law from acquiring new empirical information for environmental assessment. Thus, no systematic, interdisciplinary evaluation of impacts based on site-specific data will occur before the Yucca Mountain environment is irreparably altered by site characterization. Exemption of siting activities for the nation's first geologic repository for high-level nuclear wastes from NEPA review is further evidence of the eclipse of NEPA in decision making, a trend that may foretell how controversial, technologically complex projects will be carried out in the future.
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