I vaguely remember from my high school Latin classes that sic transit gloria mundi means something like: "thus goes the glory of the world." I think it's used in situations where civilization takes a mighty step backward. I felt that civilization had taken a step backward in 2009 when the Obama administration decided to shut down the Yucca Mountain Project, just as it had finally gotten its act together and submitted a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And that's how I felt at the end of 2012 when I read that Private Fuel Storage LLC had petitioned the NRC to withdraw its license for a spent fuel storage installation to be built in the Utah desert (see "Headlines," this issue, page 12).
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