The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Siting Process in Connecticut |
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| Authors: | Richard C Kearney e A Smith |
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| Institution: | Richard C. Kearney;is professor of political science and director of the Master of Public Affairs program and the Institute of Public and Urban Affairs at the University of Connecticut. He has published widely in the fields of environmental policy, state and local government, and personnel and labor relations. He has been involved in low-level radioactive waste policy since the early 1980s. Ande A. Smith;is a graduate of the MPA program at the University of Connecticut, and presently is a law student at the University of Maine. He served as an officer in the nuclear navy as a submariner and trainer. |
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| Abstract: | The national policy to manage low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) from commercial nuclear power plants and other generators appears to be at a standstill with regard to siting new LLRW disposal facilities in the states. Regional compacts have been established and host stales designated in most compacts, but the NIMBY problem has proved insurmountable. Connecticut has been added to the growing list of states that have experienced siting setbacks and failures. This case study describes and analyzes the Connecticut experience. We show that siting was derailed by a technical-rationality approach that ignored the political dimensions of siting until it was too late, and by the consequent and powerful NIMBY reaction that ensued. We consider the national LLRW policy dimensions of siting failures and suggest possible policy alternatives for siting LLRW disposal facilities. |
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