The Yucca Mountain standard: How lenient should it be?

The proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada for spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste needs an official standard to protect present and future people from release of radioactivity. The standard must be stringent enough to build confidence in the adequacy of public health protection in the face of legal and political challenges. In these times of budgetary shortages and slow progress in waste disposal, pressures are being exerted on Congress, on scientists, and on the public for more lenient standards. Relaxation of traditional approaches to regulate public health protection from radioactive releases appears in proposed Congressional legislation, in proposals by the nuclear industry and its Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and in a recent report by the TYMS committee of the National Research Council. In my opinion such relaxation of standards is unwise and unnecessary