The Rise of the Yucca Mountain Repository

This chapter assesses DOE&s;s initial implementation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act between 1983 and 1989. It describes the department&s;s long-delayed struggles to propose and finalize a set of largely technical guidelines for choosing a repository site. It considers the political controversies attached to winnowing nine potential locations down to five and further narrowing the possibilities from five to three. For the latter decision, the chapter assesses the technical controversy surrounding the reliance on Multi-Attribute Utility Analysis methodology. At roughly the same time, Energy Secretary Harrington unilaterally announced that the first strategic bargain geologic and geographic equity, the search for the second repository site would be “indefinitely postponed.” Thereby the first strategic bargain was breached. The chapter ends with the passage of the Nuclear Waste Amendments Act of 1987 (NWPAA), which overthrew the technically driven site-selection process, the second strategic bargain.