Nuclear - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 60

has taken many actions that have undermined its scientific judgment and credibility in the eyes
of citizens and state and local government officials. Future DOE efforts are unlikely to regain
public acceptance (Hamilton 1986). Interviews with DOE scientists responsible for these efforts
revealed no awareness on their part of the significance or causes of their failure to devise a credible
site selection procedure for permanent waste disposal facilities (Hamilton 1986). Apparently so
committed to a particular procedure they fail to see its shortcomings, their response to criticism
has been denial, rather than adaptation. They appear to see all criticism as politics, and all politics
as unscientific—unless it supports their version of science.
Therefore, a new, independent, radioactive waste management agency must be established
separate from DOE to construct and manage radioactive waste facilities. Establishment of such
an organization would require development of a new profession of radioactive waste managers,
separate from organizations and professions that have primary roles in promotion or use of nuclear
technology for weapons or civilian purposes. If the careers of these workers can be linked closely
to, and only to, long-term management of radioactive wastes, it seems likely they will develop
superior expertise in this crucial area and perform better than people whose careers depend directly
upon continued use of nuclear technology. The agency should acquire employees with advanced
training in health, physics, or other areas of expertise useful in handling radioactive materials, and
establish physical standards for employee health and alertness as stringent as those required for
air traffic controllers (Hamilton 1990, 6-7). The new agency should provide secure career paths
and incentive bonuses for employees who detect and report safety violations or hazards in waste
management facilities.
The DOE attempted to identify sites for construction of deep geologic, high-level radioactive
waste disposal facilities that would gain public acceptance. It failed. One cannot build good gov-
ernment programs on bad ideas (Hamilton 1990, 6-7). The fiction of radioactive waste disposal
is not an adequate basis on which to make policy capable of protecting humanity from the con-
sequences of its prior errors in judgment (e.g., creating thousands of tons of high-level radioac-
tive waste before figuring out how to deal with it responsibly). The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of
1982, as amended, is therefore fatally flawed and must be reformulated. Prohibiting selection of a
second repository site in the eastern United States did not cure the basic infirmities of this policy.
There is no moral or ethical justification for protecting residents of the eastern states, where most
radioactive waste is created, while allowing residents of any western state to be victimized by a
poorly conceived and poorly implemented national policy. The law should be thoroughly rewrit-
ten, even if existing waste must be kept in expanded temporary storage until a sound, credible
policy is enacted and implemented.
NUCLEAR FUSION
Nuclear fusion is a process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, releasing large
amounts of energy. It is the process that powers the sun and other active stars, the hydrogen bomb,
and experimental equipment exploring fusion power for electrical generation. Periodically hope is
raised that nuclear fusion will solve all our energy problems and perhaps dispose of all our hazard-
ous and radioactive waste as well. However, this would involve technology capable of creating
and sustaining an environment equivalent to being in the center of the sun. This is a technically
demanding task, much more difficult to accomplish than to imagine. To date, efforts to do so have
been sustained only for the tiniest fraction of a second and used thousands of time more energy
than was produced. Even if the technical challenges are someday overcome, the most optimistic
predictions are that half the electricity produced by nuclear fusion will be consumed to sustain the