Professor advocates new nuclear waste policy
On March 27, 2009, Professor Richard Stewart of NYU presented his recent paper, entitled “US Nuclear Waste Law and Policy: Fixing a Bankrupt System” at the US Capitol Visitor Center. Steve Kraft, Senior Director of used fuel management at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Tom Cochran, the director of the nuclear program of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Charles Powers (moderator), a professor at Vanderbilt University also provided comments on this paper. Stewart’s paper advocates a major shift in the way the US has thought about nuclear waste policy since the 1970s. He provides five steps towards creating a more effective nuclear policy: 1) rethinking the ethics of nuclear waste; 2) creating a Nuclear Waste Policy Commission; 3) creating new waste management and siting agencies and eliminating regulatory duplication; 4) a risk-based approach to categorizing nuclear waste (as opposed to process-based approach); and 5) a flexible and adaptive waste management strategy. The fundamental tenants of his plan are garnering public support and acceptance and using nuclear waste reprocessing as an alternative to disposal.
Under President Carter, the thought was that the only way to create a safe world for future generations was to send nuclear waste deep to repositories under the ground. Professor Stewart, on the other hand, believes that, reprocessing the waste is the best course. He wants to shift the focus of policy to giving future generations the choice between reusing and burying nuclear waste. Notably, reprocessing nuclear waste is not yet a generally accepted way to deal with waste. Tom Cochran maintains that nuclear reprocessing will never be an economically feasible option, but Professor Stewart believes that, with public support and understanding, reprocessing can be successful.
Lurking in the background of Professor Stewart’s paper is the Yucca Mountain Repository failure, in which the government chose Yuccaa Mountain in Nevada as a repository site for spent nuclear fuel, but the state’s strong opposition to using the site tied up the process for decades. The opposition was not only on environmental grounds, but because of the process that the government had used to select Yucca. The new administration’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, has declared an end to the government’s financial support of the site. Professor Stewart noted the flawed process behind Yucca, and described the “silent success” story of the New Mexico Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), where a repository has operated for years and the public has embraced it. Professor Stewart believes that if the public is involved in the process and risk assessment, there will finally be progress.
