Radioactive Wastes: Publc Attitudes toward Disposal Facilities

Although some observers have concluded that the technology required to assure safe disposal of nuclear wastes is currently available, others have expressed concern about the stability of the institutions that might be required to maintain the isolation of nuclear wastes. Questions about institutional stability and other factors associated with nuclear power and nuclear waste have been the subject of some study in public opinion research. Since these surveys have, with few exceptions, been administered to notional probability samples, it has been difficult to accurately characterize the similarities and differences of opinion of the most strongly pro- and antinuclear portions of the public.