Nuclear Reactions

The Ongoing Politics of a Radioactive Waste Site

Published by UNM Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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About The Book

The authoritative history of the most ambitious (and perhaps most controversial) nuclear waste repository in the United States, now in an updated edition covering twenty-five years of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s operation.

Before the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant received its first shipment in 1999, the facility had been actively planned for a quarter century and essentially completed for years, but it was plagued by over a decade of delays and has remained controversial since its opening. More than twenty-five years later, this new edition of the history of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant lays out the problems and conflicts behind those delays and controversies and how they continue to widen the gulf between America’s ability to create sophisticated weapons and its ability to show it can clean up after them.

About The Author

Chuck McCutcheon is a writer and editor in Washington, DC, and a former reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. He has written books on climate change, Congress, and political jargon.

Product Details

  • Publisher: UNM Press (November 17, 2026)
  • Length: 320 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780826370204

Raves and Reviews

“A clear and balanced view of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s history and its implications for future controversies involving environmental projects and national energy policies.”

– Dallas Morning News

“An important addition to the burgeoning field of atomic history.”

– New Mexico Historical Review

“This book is well-written and reads the way a good history should—we know how it ends, but we still read with anticipation.”

– Southwest BookViews

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