American Notes NUCLEAR WASTE

After a five-year struggle to pick a politically and environmentally safe site to store nuclear waste material, Congress has settled on a sagebrush-covered ridge in Bullfrog County, Nev. After geological tests are completed, a shaft will be drilled into Yucca Mountain to store up to 70,000 metric tons of radioactive material early in the next century. Louisiana Senator Bennett Johnston, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, led the effort to halt studies of alternative sites in Texas and Washington State.

The decision will save the Government nearly $4 billion in additional tests and drilling. "We need to get on with this," said Johnston. Most members of Congress were happy to choose a home for nuclear waste anywhere but in their own backyard. Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming summed up the thoughts of doubters. "Why is it," he asked, "that when the facility must isolate waste for tens of thousands of years, we cannot take the time to do it right?"