NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPING IN THE OCEANS - HAS THE COLD-WAR TAUGHT US ANYTHING

The United States and other international actors have relied without much success on traditional approaches to contain environmental damage done to our oceans by Russian dumping of nuclear waste. Our arms control experience suggests that on-site inspection is successful in situations where there is a lack of information or a lack of trust. Using on-site inspection to gather information and bolster trust could ameliorate the problem of Russian dumping of radioactive wastes into the ocean, so long as the political and financial costs of on-site inspection do not prove to be prohibitively high.