OUR PICKSWhy U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Got Stalled | Breaking the Cycle of Destructive Critical Infrastructure Hacks | How the U.S. Lost the Ability to Make Medical Masks, and more
· Why U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Got Stalled. And What to Do About It
A deep-underground waste repository wasn’t always the preferred solution for dealing with U.S. high-level waste
· How the U.S. Gained and Then Lost the Ability to Make Medical Masks
The United States still doesn’t manufacture a significant amount of PPE, and several domestic companies that responded to the call to produce PPE are now closed or on the brink of bankruptcy
· U.S. Expected to Propose Barring Chinese Software in Autonomous Vehicles
The administration is worried about connected vehicles using the driver monitoring system to listen or record occupants or take control of the vehicle itself
· Elon Musk’s X Sues Advertisers Over Alleged Boycott
The platform’s antitrust suit claims an alleged conspiracy to withhold advertising dollars. Right-wing video site Rumble filed a similar suit today
· A New Plan to Break the Cycle of Destructive Critical Infrastructure Hacks
As digital threats against US water, food, health care, and other vital sectors loom large, a new project called UnDisruptable27 aims to help fix cybersecurity weaknesses where other efforts have failed
Why U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Got Stalled. And What to Do About It (Victor Gilinsky, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
It is often said—somewhat accusingly—that it isn’t technical issues that stand in the way of siting a US geologic repository for highly radioactive waste, but political and social ones. In fact, the issues are inextricably connected. The root of the US failure lies in the original motive of the nuclear establishment in siting such an underground repository. It was not to protect public safety, but to protect continued licensing of nuclear power plants from attack in the courts on grounds that there were no provisions for dealing with the plants’ highly radioactive waste.
The disdain for public safety and the rush to open a repository infected the design process and fostered slapdash decisions. These ultimately sank the technical case for the repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. And while in the end the project was shelved by a political act, behind it were Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) actions that left a deep residue of public distrust, so deep that there isn’t likely to be a US geologic repository, ever.
The contrast with successful waste repository projects in Sweden and Finland is clear. Their regulatory standards were much tighter than those applied by the NRC, the sites were chosen carefully from a scientific point of view, and the designs strictly focused on public safety. It is not surprising that the Scandinavian authorities were able to gain the confidence of their public, and not just because they took pains to consult the public—which the Energy Department did not. They presented a good case for a sound underground facility.
How the U.S. Gained and Then Lost the Ability to Make Medical Masks (Vic Suarez, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
Just a few short years ago, acquiring medical face masks, gloves, and face shields was a challenge akin to securing front-row tickets to a Taylor Swift concert. By mid-2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns had laid bare the United States’s precarious reliance on foreign sources. Seeing states in a cut-throat competition for limited supplies of foreign-made goods, policymakers implemented various measures to address shortfalls. (Cont.)
