Playing Atomic NIMBY

Pileup of radioactive waste may close a bomb plant

For at least the past decade, the nuclear industry, both electric-power and weapons divisions, has faced the prospect of strangling on its radioactive garbage. Now that may actually happen to the Government's nuclear-bomb plant at Rocky Flats, near Boulder. Between next March and May, it will reach a limit set by state law on how much waste it can store on site. At that point, Governor Roy Romer could order it shut, making Rocky Flats the first atomic facility to be closed because it is unable to dispose of its trash.

Oddly enough, a facility exists for permanent burial of the...

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