UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR TESTS AND OTHER WORST-CASE ANALOGUES FOR GEOLOGIC WASTE ISOLATION

Six nuclear underground detonations in New Mexico, Colorado, and Louisiana provide useful anthropogenic analogues for geologic isolation of dangerous wastes. All resulted in negligible or undetectable harm to humans and their environment. Nature provides other worst-case analogues such as magmatic intrusives and their very thin metamorphosed contact zones. These extreme examples add to the already very reasonable confidence that geologic media can confine dangerous substances safely and permanently.