Nuclear Power and the Challenge of High-Level Waste Disposal in the United States

Abstract

Any consideration of the future of nuclear power must tackle the question of how to dispose of the highly radioactive waste produced by nuclear reactors. This article reviews the decades-long debate in the United States over nuclear-waste policy, including the Obama administration's decision to cancel work on the planned waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and the 2012 report from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. The article, in addition to discussing some of the technical challenges of nuclear-waste disposal, looks at the political challenges of siting a high-level waste repository in the United States, and links those challenges to the continuing search for a national energy policy that reduces dependency on fossil fuels and its ramifications for climate change.