WASTE US Military High-Level Waste Disposal No Cakewalk

摘要

The US government’s Mar. 24 order to create a separate disposal track for military high-level nuclear waste signifies the readiness of President Barack Obama’s administration to move the nuclear waste disposal issue past the traffic blockade of the proposed and long-delayed Yucca Mountain repository. Skeptics say not so fast, however: the preparation of military-related nuclear waste (referred to in the US as “defense waste”) is no trivial technical feat, and studies have estimated that it will be decades before defense waste can be permanently disposed of — leading some to suggest the Obama administration’s order is more of a political gesture than practical (NIW Mar.27’15).