Future Perspectives on Nuclear Issues

The United States has made nuclear policy decisions based on a number of incorrect premises. The 1977 decision by the United States to halt research into reprocessing and mixed-oxide fuel did not curtail other countries' pursuit of those technologies. Now the United States is unable to use those technologies to meet urgent energy or nonproliferation needs and has largely been left out of international nuclear fuel cycle issues. Scientific evidence may not support the "linear-no-threshold" assumptions used to predict the effects of radiation. As a result, the United States spends billions each year cleaning up sites to levels within five percent of natural background radiation, even though natural background radiation varies by up to 50 percent. Irradiation of food products is rarely used in the United States, despite convincing evidence of its benefits in curtailing foodborne illnesses.