The Road to Yucca Mountain

The Development of Radioactive Waste Policy in the United States

J Samuel Walker author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of California Press

Published:25th Sep '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Road to Yucca Mountain cover

In "The Road to Yucca Mountain", J. Samuel Walker traces the U.S. government's tangled efforts to solve the technical and political problems associated with radioactive waste. From the Manhattan Project through the designation in 1987 of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a high-level waste repository, Walker thoroughly investigates the approaches adopted by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). He explains the growing criticism of the AEC's waste programs, such as the AEC's embarrassing failure in its first serious effort to build a high-level waste repository in a Kansas salt mine. Clearly and accessibly, Walker explains the issues surrounding deep geological disposal and surface storage of high-level waste and spent reactor fuel. He analyzes the equally complex and divisive question of fuel 'reprocessing'. He weaves reliable research with fresh insights about nuclear science, geology, politics, and public administration, making this original and authoritative account an essential guide for understanding the continuing controversy over an illusive and emotional topic.

"A valuable account of the history/ongoing issues related to this significant problem... Recommended." Choice "An excellent resource." Enterprise & Society "Engaging, concise, and disturbing." Metascience "Walker's history of U.S. nuclear waste management provides a clear reminder of the potential pitfalls of disposal of this material...to ignore these is to invite failure yet again." Journal Of American History "No author could more expertly exhume the bones of this institutional history than Walker." Metascience "Walker has demonstrated that there is an important place for public history in the scholarly arena... Well-researched, objective, and informative." Technology And Culture

ISBN: 9780520260450

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm

Weight: 454g

240 pages