Robert Alvarez, an Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar, served as a senior policy adviser to the Secretary of Energy during the Clinton administration and wrote the recently released report Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the U.S.: Reducing the Deadly Risks of Storage (PDF), available for download at www.ips-dc.org.
The spent-fuel pools at our reactors, containing thousands of tons of poorly protected but highly radioactive waste, are a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Madame Curie's denial of radiation dangers is emblematic of the legacy we now face as America's romance with the atom draws to a close.