NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

Support for this study was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy under cooperative agreement number DE-FG28–97NV12056. All opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Energy.

COVER: Depicted are high-level radioactive waste at the bottom of an underground tank (upper left), an artist’s rendition of a high-level waste repository (upper right), a nuclear fuel assembly being lowered into the core of a power reactor (lower left), and a spent fuel dry-storage facility (lower right). The first appears courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy; the last two are courtesy of the Nuclear Energy Institute.