One Hundred Centuries Of Solitude: Redirecting America's High-level Nuclear Waste Policies

by James Flynn, James Chalmers, Doug Easterling

When Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, it directed the Department of Energy to locate, study, license, and develop a deep underground repository for high-level nuclear wastes. As the authors of this study show, by 1987 the program was in shambles, beset by opposition from every state that had a potential storage site. Congress passed amendments to the original legislation that designated Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the only site for study and development.The authors trace the evolution of the political and social turmoil created by this difficult site-selection process, looking at the history of the nation’s repository program, the nature of the public’s concerns, and the effects of intergovernmental conflict. They also examine how other countries have addressed similar problems. Turning to a promising development—a dry-cask storage method judged by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be safe for a century or more—they urge a full reassessment of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste policies and of existing DOE programs.The book concludes with carefully considered recommendations for a new national policy for the storage of hazardous nuclear waste. Everyone concerned about nuclear waste and how it should be managed at the federal, state, and local levels will find valuable information in this in-depth study of the issues at hand.

129 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 1995

About the author

James (Jim) Flynn (6 October 1934 - 28 November 2012) was a prominent researcher of Risk Management.

After graduation from St. Ann’s in 1948, and Gonzaga Prep in 1952, he served in the U.S. Army, graduating from Eastern Washington State College in 1963. He earned a PhD in English Literature from the University of Washington in 1974.

After teaching at universities in North Carolina and New York, he became a social scientist with a specialty in environmental studies (University of Kansas).

He collaborated with a group of scholars on a multi-year contract to study socioeconomic impacts of nuclear power plants across the U.S. Later, in collaboration with Mountain West (then located in Phoenix, Arizona), Jim formed a multi-disciplinary group of scientists to work with the State of Nevada in opposition to development of Yucca Mountain, Nevada as a high-level nuclear waste repository.

This multi-million-dollar contract with Nevada, first with Mountain West, then with Decision Research (Eugene, Oregon), and subsequently with San-Francisco-based Pacific World History Institute (brother Dennis, Director) continued for over twenty years; the result was a successful fight against the U.S. Department of Energy’s attempt to turn Yucca Mountain, NV into the country’s sole nuclear waste repository.

In the process, Jim generated an impressive record of scholarly publications.