Community response to large-scale federal projects: the case of the MX

An analysis of community response to large-scale defense projects, such as the proposals to site MX missiles in Utah and Nevada, is one way to identify those factors likely to be important in determining community response to nuclear waste repository siting. This chapter gives a brief overview of the MX system's characteristics and the potential impacts it would have had on the rural areas, describes the patterns of community mobilization that occurred in Utah and Nevada, and suggests where this response may parallel community concerns about a repository siting. Three lessons from the MX experience are that local residents, asked to assume a disproportionate share of the negative impacts, should be involved in the siting process, that local residents should be treated as equal, and that compensation should be offered when local residents suffer from political expediency