| Sumario: | Part of a special section on the environment. In spite of important scientific uncertainties and strong public opposition, an “iron triangle” appears to be promoting the location of the world's first permanent geological repository for high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This “triangle” is composed of industry, government, and consultants/contractors who have ignored certain significant epistemological and ethical difficulties with the proposed plant. The epistemological grounds involve the tremendous uncertainties linked with permanent disposal. The ethical issues involve the necessity to behave in a morally conservative way and to minimize type II errors—failure to reject a null hypothesis that is false—in situations of uncertainty. Moreover, on a political level, other countries are postponing decisions about the permanent disposal of nuclear waste. The Yucca Mountain case implies that in such instances, the iron triangle needs to be broken or expanded to include the concerns of the public.
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