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Is There A Problem of Nuclear Waste Disposal? (1991-06-04)
About this film
Apart from actual meltdown, the biggest worry about nuclear power plants has to do with radioactive waste: how can you dispose of it without risking its radiation getting into the water supply, or being loosed by an earthquake? Mr. Hollister thinks he has the answer: sea mud. His verve in describing his idea (actually, an idea worked out in a 15- year study by scientists from 8 countries) is matched only by his lucidity in explaining it. CH: "To me the key is predictability. As you correctly point out, the key is going to a place where nothing has happened for the past 60 or 70 million years; therefore the next half-million years looks like a pretty safe bet, because the world is a probabilistic world." ... AM: "The Department of Energy has been singularly unsuccessful politically and scientifically in managing nuclear waste. In 1970 they said: We will have a repository in 10 years. In 1982 they said: We will have a repository in 16 years. In 1990 they said: We will have a repository in 20 years."
Directors & creators
Southern Educational Communications Association
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, Firing Line, William F. Buckley Jr., Charles Hollister, United States Department of Energy, Stanford University, nuclear waste disposal, radioactive waste management, nuclear power, sub-seabed disposal, geological disposal, environmental policy, nuclear safety, energy policy
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