Obama and toxic waste, toxic politics
In his inaugural address on Jan 21, 2009, President Barack Obama promised that "we'll restore science to its rightful place." Mark that down as a broken promise, as far as a key element of America's nuclear energy future is concerned. Obama's remark on science was a swipe at his predecessor, George W Bush, whose administration was frequently criticized, often with good reason, for allowing ideology to trump science on subjects as varied as stem cell research, the morning-after birth control pill and the en
vironment.
In contrast, Obama's most prominent move to shelve a major scientific project - The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository - has been driven not by ideology but by a toxic combination of nimbyism (from "not in my backyard"), electoral politics, and high-handed leadership of America's Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That combination led to the closure of a project that, over its long gestation period, involved more than 2,500 scientists and has so far cost $15 billion.
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