WORKABLE WASTE PLAN HAS ITS OPPONENENTS

The problem of what to do with radioactive waste produced by nuclear energy plants has been around for quite a while. The solution, it seems, is no nearer at hand than when the first nuclear facility went on line decades ago.

Now six Midwestern states that originally set about forming a compact to handle such waste produced in Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin have decided they cant come up with a workable plan. The reason is obvious: None of those states wants a radioactive dump within its borders.

So the compact of states has decided to ask for the federal governments permission to ship the waste to sites in Utah and South Carolina.

Of course, no sticky problem is ever that easy to resolve. The Utah site, for example, is on an Indian reservation near the Great Salt Lake. Utah state officials and environmentalists are doing everything possible to keep the Goshute Indians from operating a nuclear dump on the reservation.

In this case, a willing provider of a service is being pressured not to do what it wants to do. Given the nations reliance on nuclear power, perhaps it would be better to leave this situation to the nuclear plants and the Indians willing to take the waste.