Nuclear Waste and Native America: The MRS Siting Exercise

The U.S. government’s quest to store high-level nuclear waste has
had many interesting twists and turns. One set of developments stands
out as unique — efforts to site a temporary Monitored Retrievable
Storage (MRS) facility on lands belonging to Native Americans. We
describe the history and logic of the government’s process which led to
the involvement of Native Americans and the reactions of some tribes
to the MRS option. We also provide cross-cultural perspectives on issues
such as risk perception and equity and consider various policy dilemmas
raised by efforts to site a nuclear waste storage facility on Native
American lands.