First Rutgers Edition with a New Preface
Subtitle: Risk, Radiation, and Distrust of Government
Author: John Weingart
Subject: Regional / Public Policy
Paper ISBN 0-8135-4237-9
Pages: 448 pages, 43 b&w illustrations
Publication Date: October 2007

“A reflective, insightful book . . . How, Weingart asks, can our relationship with government change to one in which we actually trust public agencies and officials to help us know what is dangerous and what isn’t. This work is a major contribution to finding the answer.”—The Star Ledger

It is an unenviable task, but one that all state governments face: finding a final “resting place” for low-level nuclear waste from power plants, hospitals, university laboratories, and many industries. John Weingart was the official in New Jersey who for many years led this onerous charge. His book is the story of how he and a commission appointed by the governor, instead of imposing a top-down solution, designed an approach that would confront public fears by seeking a community that would volunteer to host the needed disposal facility. Initially, this novel approach was surprisingly successful, as leaders in a dozen municipalities stepped forward to say they might be interested. Once their interest became known, however, the process in each town derailed. Residents demanded assurances of zero-percent risk and expressed profound distrust of government assertions and promises.

Waste Is a Terrible Thing to Mind is a compelling, suspenseful, and amusing insider’s account of New Jersey policy and politics, but it is also a larger saga of the challenges facing society in the post–9/11 era when the public’s distrust of government is increasing at the same rate that its sensitivity to health and safety threats is heightening.

John Weingart is associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.