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Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive Waste The withdrawal of Nevadas Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository1 has reopened the debate over how and where to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. In an article in the July 10 issue of Science, University of Michigan2 geologist Rodney Ewing and Princeton University3 nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel argue that, although federal agencies should set standards and issue licenses for the approval of nuclear facilities, local communities and states should have the final approval on the siting of these facilities. The authors propose the development of multiple sites that would service the regions where nuclear reactors are located. The main goal, should be to provide the Unied States with multiple process that requires acceptance by host communities and states, the authors write. Ewing and yon Hippel also analyze the reasons why Yucca Mountain, selected by Congress4 in 1987 as the only site to be investigated for long-term nuclear waste disposal, finally was shelved5 after more than three decades of often controversial debate. The reasons include the sites geological problems, management problems, important changes in the Environmental Protection Agencys standard, unreliable funding and the failure to involve local communities in the decision-making process. Going forward, efforts should be directed at locating storage facilities in the nations northeastern, southeastern, midwestern and western regions, and states within a given region should be responsible for developing solutions that suit their particular circumstances. Transportation of nuclear waste over long distances, which was a concern with the Yucca Mountain site, would be less of a problem because temporary storage or geological disposal sites could be located closer to reactors. | 
