1st Edition

Calculated Risks Highly Radioactive Waste and Homeland Security

    This well-documented study examines one of the increasingly pressing problems for US homeland security: the storage and management of radioactive waste. Despite pressing homeland security and energy security concerns associated with highly radioactive waste, political considerations have prevented policy makers from adopting adequate long-term solutions to the problem. This book explores nuclear waste problems through the broader lens of federal, state and local government and the resultant constraints on policy that emerge within the American political system. Presenting specific case studies to highlight the deficiencies in current policy and planning as well as the possibility of terrorist activity, it is highly suited to courses on security studies and environmental politics.

    Preface; Understanding the problem; On-site storage; Centralized interim storage; Permanent disposal; Transportation; The conceptual framework; What to do?; Bibliography; Index.

    Biography

    Kenneth A. Rogers, Ph.D. is Professor of Politics and Chair of the Department of Politics and Geography, Coastal Carolina University, USA. Marvin G. Kingsley is a Graduate Student at Arkansas Tech University (ATU), USA.

    'This book contains extraordinarily useful glossaries and illustrations, but most importantly, the book is a most readable treatise on one of the least understood risks now and in the future, that of highly radioactive waste....a profoundly effective textbook, because it deals with a complex topic in an interesting, understandable style, heavy with substance, provocative in impact, and effective in teaching.' Kay C. Goss, CEM, Electronic Data Systems Corporation, Senior Advisor for Public Safety and Homeland Security, USA '...well-documented...valuable for political science practitioners and students. The work includes a useful glossary and a very complete bibliography. Highly recommended.' Choice '...a valuable source of information for a reader interested in legal, regulatory and political issues involved with management of radioactive waste...' Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management