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Science 21 October 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5747, pp. 447 - 448
DOI: 10.1126/science.1112786
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Policy Forum

NUCLEAR WASTE:
Proof of Safety at Yucca Mountain

Luther J. Carter and Thomas H. Pigford

Controversy over geologic disposal of spent fuel and other highly radioactive waste has long turned on a persistent question, within as well as outside the technical community, whether radioactive elements will be safely contained over the long period of hazard. In this Policy Forum, Carter and Pigford call for a proof of safety in repository design very unlike what the U.S. Department of Energy is pursuing at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. A containment system based on a capillary barrier is proposed as quite possibly the best choice available at this site for satisfying a robust proof of safety.
L. J. Carter is an independent journalist in Washington, DC, and the author of Nuclear Imperatives and Public Trust: Dealing with Radioactive Waste (Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, 1987); e-mail: lcarter345{at}aol.com. T. H. Pigford is professor emeritus, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; e-mail: pigford{at}nuc.berkeley.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)