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Physical Sciences and Mathematics
International Symposium on Technology and Society
Environmental disasters; Environmental impact analyses; Environmental impact analysis; National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); National Environmental Policy Act of 1969; Nevada—Yucca Mountain; Psychological impact; Radioactive waste repositories; Stigma-related impacts; Stigma (Social psychology)
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Session 6 - The National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa): Is It All That It Can Be? The Case For Evaluating Stigma Effects, Dennis Bechtel
Session 6 - The National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa): Is It All That It Can Be? The Case For Evaluating Stigma Effects, Dennis Bechtel
International Symposium on Technology and Society
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has long been regarded as the“Magna Carta” of environmental policy legislation. The government in implementing its requirements on NEPA is required to evaluate potential environmental impacts from “significant” projects, to examine alternatives to proposed actions, and to enable the public to provide meaningful input to decision-makers. Despite the significance of NEPA there is evidence to suggest that environmental impact analyses may in fact be understating potential negative effects to citizens and communities. In particular potential impacts associated with stigma have been almost universally ignored in documents prepared under NEPA. The proposed high-level nuclear waste …