Congress Grapples with Nuclear Wastes

According to the Department of Energy, about 76,700 cubic meters of low-level radioactive wastes, with a radioactivity of 505,340 curies, was generated in the U.S. in 1983. Yet there are only three commercial disposal sites that accept the wastes, and the states in which those sites are located, very tired of accepting everybody else's garbage, have threatened to shut them down in the near future. This battle between the "haves" and the "have nots," complicated by a severe case of the "not in my backyard" syndrome, has landed squarely in the lap of a Congress that thought it had solved the problem of disposing of low-level radioactive wastes in 1980. In December of that year it passed the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act, which made each state responsible for disposal of all wastes generated within its borders. The states were encouraged to form regional compacts, with one state acting as host for the site. ...