Unit 3: Societal Concerns and National Policy

National decisions concerning nuclear waste must consider the impacts on future generations.

Nuclear waste poses some complex problems. Some of these problems are technical, others are societal, and some are a combination of both. For example, since some nuclear waste will be highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years, what is our obligation for protecting future generations? Should we find a way to store it that is temporarily safe and hope that in the future, people will find a more permanent solution? Or should we try to permanently dispose of the waste in a way that would protect future generations?

In our democratic society, the public must be involved in any governmental solution to a major technical or societal problem before it can be implemented. When the problem involves risks to people’s health and safety, the solution can be complex. Many times the public’s perception of risk is different from technical assessments of the same risk.

In Units 1 and 2, you learned about what nuclear waste is and why it needs special disposal. You also learned about radiation — what it is, where it comes from, and some of its properties. In this unit, you will focus on how our government plans to deal with the high-level nuclear waste that has accumulated in our country.

Specifically, this unit

• Examines the complex challenges involved in safely disposing of high-level radioactive waste.
  
  
• Examines how experts assess risk, how the public views risk, and how their perspectives sometimes differ.
  
  
• Introduces the national law that provides for the disposal of nuclear waste and its provisions for minimizing the risks to public health and safety.
  
  
• Examines how the law addresses the public perception of risk
  
  
• Discusses the roles of the different federal agencies involved in the waste disposal program and how states, Native American tribes, and the public are involved in the process of solving the waste problem.