Nuclear Waste

Foreword Over the past decades, Piero Risoluti has built up an intimate knowl- edge of the nuclear industry - in particular of nuclear waste man- agement. In this book, his scientific understanding is apparent - for example in his comprehensive but readily understandable descrip- tions of waste conditioning and disposal. Moreover, he has also been directly involved in the wider societal and political debates in the nuclear area - especially in his Italian homeland. What shines through in these pages is.his frustration at the lack of progress in im- plementing disposal concepts that are judged by many to be very safe and his unfaltering drive to improve this situation. To provoke debate, the book is very deliberately written in a po- larising, black and white style that can easily be labelled as 'politi- cally incorrect' - a characterisation that Piero will probably agree with and be amused by. Criticism is directed equally at 'loud- mouthed and incompetent anti-nuclear environmentalists', the 'nu- clear Byzantium' of the international nuclear establishment, the 'in- tellectual narcissism' of those nuclear experts that dare to admit the importance of societal issues, and the tendency of politicians to 'in- definite procrastination'. These are not words chosen to avoid open confrontation of opposing views.