A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES: SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY V. POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY IN SELECTING AND EVALUATING GEOLOGIC REPOSITORIES FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE

After promising that they will base crucial decisions on science, objective evidence, and reality, governments all too often heed those lofty principles perfunctorily. Two unfortunate recent protagonists are Germany and the United States who both, during the past decade, arbitrarily suspended programs in pursuit of geologic isolation of radioactive waste. Bland statements that “suitability of the Gorleben (salt dome) is in doubt” and “the current (German) disposal concept has failed and lacks any factual basis”, or that “Yucca Mountain as a repository is off the table” and “we can do a better job”, lack scientific or technical support and credibility. Fortunate for the cause of scientific integrity, independent scientists and engineers in both countries are calling those and other politically and bureaucratically motivated but poorly scientifically and technically camouflaged bluffs. As congenitally multi-disciplinary scientists, geologists are well suited and should feel obligated to join those debates.