atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 04.2019

atw Vol. 64 (2019) | Issue 4 ı April
DECOMMISSIONING AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 224
to assess adequately the quality of
regulatory policies and outcomes”
[26].
In examining “how the sausage is
made,” Barnett also discourses on
these procedural processes that affect
both validity and legitimacy within a
political law-making system as laws
created within that system can
potentially be “valid and illegitimate”
or “legitimate and unjust” [24]. Such
a paradoxical outcome is unfortunate
but is a consequence that the procedures
in practice do not provide the
necessary guarantees allowing the
promulgation of evenhanded laws
or rules, or because there was a failure
to adequately follow the correct procedures
in place.
The potential extended timelime of
envisioned nuclear waste management
programs demands these
programs must therefore stand firmly
on the concept of legal ‘stability’. Once
a civilian nuclear power program is
initiated, and certain milestones are
achieved, the space for deviation or
‘change’ diminishes in any nuclear
power and waste management program,
especially given that a number
of nation state’s deep geologic repositories
are not planned with retrievability
in mind. This shrinking space
for ‘change’ in a nuclear power and
waste management program is shown
in Figure 2.
Footnotes
1 According to Robert Higgs, “Estimates of gross domestic product
(GDP)... Became an essential part of economic analysis…
in the late 1930s and early 1940s”. See: HIGGS, R 2015,
'Gross Domestic Product – an Index of Economic Welfare or a
Meaningless Metric?', Independent Review, 20, 1, pp. 153-157,
Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 June 2017.
2 to stand by things decided.
3 From the pen of Clarence N. Goodwin.
4 Human history provides a number of examples of failed and
fallen empires. Certainly, for the western world, the collapse of
the Roman Empire is a striking and often discussed example.
Other examples might include the Arab Empire, also known as
the Caliphate, the Mongol Empire and the British Empire.
Common features leading to the decline of these empires
include a decline in the values underpinning the empire,
political corruption, and military spending. See: The Decline and
Fall of Empires, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stratfor/2015/
04/20/the-decline-and-fall-of-empires/#1248dd3d383e,
viewed July 11, 2018.
5 An example could be provided during the breakup of the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1990’s. The international
community rallied to provide assistance to these nation states
to successfully retain and maintain control over their nuclear
power plants, enrichment capabilities, as well as other fundamental
aspects of both their civilian and/or military nuclear
programs. However, these states as such did not cease to exist
and this was more of a transition between political systems,
while the central government structure was maintained. See:
Hill, F and Jewett, P “BACK IN THE USSR” Russia's Intervention in
the Internal Affairs Of the Former Soviet Republics and the Implications
for United States Policy Toward Russia, January 1994,
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/
Back-in-the-USSR-1994.pdf, viewed June 15, 2018. Also see:
Allison, Graham. 2012. What Happened to the Soviet Superpower’s
Nuclear Arsenal? Clues for the Nuclear Security Summit.
HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP12- 038, John
F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, https://
dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/9403176, viewed July 11, 2018.
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Authors
Mark Callis Sanders
Sanders Engineering
1350 E. Flamingo Road Ste.
13B #290
Las Vegas NV 89119
USA
Charlotta E. Sanders
Department of Mechanical
Engineering
University of Nevada
Las Vegas (UNLV)
4505 S. Maryland Pwky
Las Vegas, NV 89154
USA
Decommissioning and Waste Management
A World’s Dilemma ‘Upon Which the Sun Never Sets’: The Nuclear Waste Management Strategy: Russia, Asia and the Southern Hemisphere Part I
ı Mark Callis Sanders and Charlotta E. Sanders