DESPITE THE FAILURE OF CURRENT PROCEDURE, THERE IS NO VIABLE ALTERNATIVE MEANS OF STORAGE James Flynn and Paul Slovic 1995 (senior researcher with Decision Research,president of Decision research and prof of psychology at the University of Oregon, "YUCCA MOUNTAIN A CRISIS FOR POLICY Prospects for America's High-Level Nuclear Waste Program" Annual Rev. Energy Environ. 1995. 20:83-118 In the most optimistic view, the program at Yucca Mountain must be seen as a troubled and high-risk effort. The federal government is gambling that Yucca Mountain will be suitable and acceptable. Success is possible, but serious doubts remain about this site. And there is no alternative site, creating more doubts about the HLNW repository program. According to the director of the DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), no contingency plan exists in the event Yucca Mountain is found unsuitable. The director characterized this as a great deficiency because DOE must return to Congress for new instructions if it finds that Yucca Mountain will not do. For all practical purposes, returning to Congress means starting over, and choosing, studying, and developing another site could take several decades (2).
