A summary of the radioactive waste management programs in Finland, including the national nuclear energy context; sources, types, and quantities of waste; radioactive waste management policies and programs; research and development; decommissioning and dismantling policies and projects; transport; authorities and implementing organizations; financing; and public information.

Over the course of the last two and a half years, Committee Republicans have reviewed in depth Administration actions associated with the Yucca Mountain Project and disposal of the Nation‘s spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Focusing in particular on the scientific and technical information and processes associated with key policy decisions, the Committee‘s effort included numerous letters to Administration officials, extensive questioning at Committee hearings, and acquisition and review of thousands of pages of internal documents.

Waste siting gridlock in the United States and Canada has led to experimentation with voluntary and hybrid or "mixed mode" siting. We review nuclear and hazardous waste voluntary siting (VS) results for selected cases in the U.S. and Canada. Findings indicate that VS is not a panacea. but that current siting efforts are inadequate tests of its potential. We suggest trials of improved VS protocols and more effort on hybrid approaches in which the developer chooses the site but is required to reach agreement on conditions with local stakeholders.

Nuclear waste disposal in the USA is a difficult policy issue infused with science, technology, and politics. This issue provides an example of the co-production of scientific knowledge and politics through public policy. The proponents of a repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, argue that their decision to go ahead with the site is based on ‘sound science’, but the science they use to uphold their decision is influenced by politics. In turn, the politics of site selection has been altered by the scientific knowledge produced.

The purpose of this report is a comparison of the structures for nuclear waste management in France, Sweden and UK. The source materials for this comparison are studies carried out in each of these countries by Syncho Ltd. over the past 5 years. The Swedish structural review was sponsored by SKI and SSI, and carried out as a pilot study during the years 1996 and 1997 (Espejo & Gill, 1998) as part of the RISCOM I project.

With the first 100 days of the Obama Administration behind us, the Institute for 21st Century Energy presents this nuclear waste policy document that recounts the history of the country’s nuclear waste policy, discusses the mechanics of the issue, and offers specific recommendations to the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress.