Starting in 1953, the United States publicly promoted the “peaceful use of atomic energy” and a separation of military nuclear weapons and commercial nuclear power. The separation of military and civil facilities and waste has always been tenuous in fact. But the separation has increasingly been diminished by more recent federal laws and the practices of the U.S. Department of Energy. This presentation will briefly discuss the history, and explore some of the recent changes and some future policies and practices that are important to public understanding and activism.
Thursday, October 28, 2021, 7 p.m. Central Time at Zoom link:
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Don Hancock has worked at Southwest Research and Information Center, in Albuquerque, NM since 1975. He has a B.A. degree in Political Science from DePauw University. His work has focused on U.S. government policies and facilities related to nuclear weapons waste and commercial spent fuel, with special attention to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the world’s only operating deep geologic repository. He has also been actively involved for more than 30 years with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a national network addressing nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup issues.
Don’s unifying theme is that the informed public can advocate for future generations, rather than deferring to government and industry “experts.”