Forget underground storage for high-level nuclear wastes, says John Leivia, director of Strategic Environmental Technologies. Last week, his company proposed plans to inject thousands of canisters of plutonium into salt formations beneath the Gulf of Mexico. The announcement was a big surprise to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy, which plan to send high-level radioactive wastes to underground sites in Nevada and New Mexico. Lisa Gue, of the watchdog organization Public Citizen, said that storing nuclear waste under the seabed “could have disastrous consequences” for ocean life. A DOE spokesperson said the agency wasn’t even considering the company’s proposal and noted, “The United States is a signee to a United Nations treaty which prohibits ocean disposal of nuclear waste.”
