As we enter mid-19Bl, the Reagan administration is completing a review of U. s. nuclear waste management policy. Major revisions in the recently announced Carter administration policies are expected. Reagan is a strong supporter of civilian nuclear power and will probably encourage spent fuel reprocessing by the private sector. Meanwhile, the deep geologic disposal of defense nuclear waste in New Mexico moves ahead. In the coming months, discussion and debate of U. S. radioactive waste management policies will intensify in the Congress, in the technical community, and among environ mentalists and the public at large. An important element of the debate should be the scientific and technical issues of the safe disposal of radioactive wastes from both the civilian nuclear power fuel cycle and the defense fuel cycle, including naval pro propulsion programs and nuclear weapons production. The literature of waste management is voluminous, covering all aspects of the world-wide problem of safe disposal. The authors of this book have attempted to cri tically review this literature, selecting the more important reports to abstract. Our selection criteria were heavily influenced by considerations of policy issues and by our experiences in both the technical community and the regulatory environment. Our intent is to identify those reports we feel will contribute the most to the development of a national consensus on the safe disposal of existing and future nuclear wastes as yet another U. S. waste policy emerges in Washington.
