Witnesses include: Lake H. Barrett, Acting Dir., Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy; Reps. Shelley Berkley and Jim Gibbons; Senators Jeff Bingaman, Richard Bryan, Jim Bunning, Conrad Burns, Larry E. Craig, Pete V. Domenici, Peter G. Fitzgerald, Bob Graham, Rod Grams, Mary Landrieu, Frank Murkowski, and Harry Reid; Shirley Ann Jackson, Chmn., U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Michael Mariotte, Exec. Dir., Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Erle Nye, Chmn. and Chief Executive, Texas Utilities Company; and John G. Strand, Michigan Public Service Commission.

This well-documented study examines one of the increasingly pressing problems for US homeland security: the storage and management of radioactive waste. Despite pressing homeland security and energy security concerns associated with highly radioactive waste, political considerations have prevented policy makers from adopting adequate long-term solutions to the problem. This book explores nuclear waste problems through the broader lens of federal, state and local government and the resultant constraints on policy that emerge within the American political system. Presenting specific case studies to highlight the deficiencies in current policy and planning as well as the possibility of terrorist activity, it is highly suited to courses on security studies and environmental politics.