Memorandum from Mark Guiton to David Mead, March 4, 1999, regarding Basic Science Legislation (Nuclear Waste Disposition Alternative Plan of 1999) (1 page)

Memo To: From: Date: Subject: David Mead Mark Guiton Office of Congresswoman Shelley Berkley March 4, 1999 Basic Science Legislation My boss would like to introduce legislation entitled, "the Nuclear Waste Disposition Alternative Plan of 1999" that would provide $25,000,000 in research grant money. The United States should initiate a backup plan for the ultimate disposition of nuclear waste. The potential of disposing nuclear waste in the upper mantle, which resides beneath the earth's crust and under the biosphere, is a long range basic research need. Therefore, a competitive grant program for national labs and universities within DOE's Basic Sciences program should be funded. The grants shall be awarded for peer reviewed technical studies and feasibility studies in the following categories: 1) develop a roadmap of how such a program may work and the issues to be resolved; 2) research rock cutting technology for deep mining; 3) develop characterization techniques for upper mantle disposition of nuclear waste; 3) research container concepts for upper mantle disposition of nuclear waste; Immediate benefits of the research may be extracted from some of this research to improve the environmental concerns of mining. I can be reached at 5-5965. Thank you.