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Shrader-Frechette looks at current U.S. government policy regarding the nation's high-level radioactive waste both scientifically and ethically. What should be done with our nation's high-level radioactive waste, which will remain hazardous for thousands of years? This is one of the most pressing problems faced by the nuclear power industry, and current U.S. government policy is to bury "radwastes" in specially designed deep repositories. K. S. Shrader-Frechette argues that this policy is profoundly misguided on both scientific and ethical grounds. Scientifically-because we cannot trust the precision of 10,000-year predictions that promise containment of the waste. Ethically-because geological disposal ignores the rights of present and future generations to equal treatment, due process, and free informed consent. Shrader-Frechette focuses her argument on the world's first proposed high-level radioactive waste facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Analyzing a mass of technical literature, she demonstrates the weaknesses in the professional risk-assessors' arguments that claim the site is sufficiently safe for such a plan. We should postpone the question of geological disposal for at least a century and use monitored, retrievable, above-ground storage of the waste until then. Her message regarding radwaste is clear: what you can't see can hurt you.

Radioactive waste disposal in the ground-- Environmental aspects. --- Radioactive waste disposal in the ground --- Civil & Environmental Engineering --- Environmental Engineering --- Engineering & Applied Sciences --- Environmental aspects --- Risk assessment --- Environmental aspects. --- Risk assessment. --- Burial of radioactive wastes --- Ground radioactive waste disposal --- Underground radioactive waste disposal --- Hazardous waste sites --- Waste disposal in the ground --- Radioactive waste repositories --- Déchets radioactifs --- Elimination dans le sol --- Aspect de l'environnement --- Evaluation du risque --- Radioactive waste disposal --- american history. --- consent. --- due process. --- ethics. --- geology. --- government. --- half life. --- health and safety. --- legal issues. --- liability. --- morals. --- natural history. --- natural world. --- nevada. --- nuclear power. --- nuclear waste. --- political. --- politics. --- pollution. --- public health. --- radioactive waste. --- radwaste. --- respiratory illness. --- science. --- scientific. --- united states history. --- us government. --- us history. --- yucca mountain.