The Politics of Nuclear Waste covers several issues concerning nuclear waste, such as management, disposal, and its impact on politics. Consisting of eight chapters, the book covers several aspects of the politics of nuclear waste. The opening chapter discusses nuclear waste management in the United States, while the next chapter reviews a cross national perspective on the politics of nuclear waste. Chapter 3 talks about congressional and executive branch factions in nuclear waste management policy, while Chapter 4 discusses federal-state conflict in nuclear waste management. Chapter 5 tackles consultation and concurrence, and Chapter 6 deals with public participation. Chapter seven aims to answer "When does consultation become co-optation? and "When does information become propaganda? The last chapter discusses prospects for consensus. This book will be of great interest to those concerned with the implication of nuclear waste management for the political climate.

Includes indexes.

This book demonstrates that the long-term safety of nuclear waste repositories, special waste disposal and carbon storage (CCS) is highly challenging and monitoring may contribute to substantiate evidence, support decision making and legitimise the programme. Deep geological disposal is a long-term safety issue and, in parallel, requires long-term institutional involvement of the technoscientific community, waste producers, public administrators, NGOs and the public. What, where and when to monitor is determined by its goal setting: It may be operational, confirmatory (in the near field) or environmental (far field). Strategic monitoring as proposed here contributes to process, implementation or policy and institutional surveillance. It not only addresses the controversial long-lasting “problem” (of nuclear, other toxic or CO2 waste) but investigates some ways to approach for “solutions” or solution spaces – not just technical but also institutional, societal and personal. It includes the tailored transfer of knowledge, concept and system understanding, experience and documentation to specific audiences above. It is an integrative tool of targeted yet adaptive management and may be applicable to other long-term sociotechnical fields.