An evaluation is given of DOE's recommendation of the Elk River complex in North Carolina for siting the second repository. Twelve recommendations are made including a strong suggestion that the Cherokee Tribe appeal both through political and legal avenues for inclusion as an affected area primarily due to projected impacts upon economy and public health as a consequence of the potential for reduced tourism.

The work of Steve Jones and others in muon-catalyzed cold fusion of deuterium and hydrogen suggests the possibility of such fusion catalyzed by ions, or combinations of atoms, or more-or-less free electrons in solid and liquid materials. A hint that this might occur naturally comes from the heat generated in volcanic action in subduction zones on the earth. It is questionable whether the potential energy of material raised to the height of a midocean ridge and falling to the depth of an ocean trench can produce the geothermal effects seen in the volcanoes of subduction zones. If the ridge, the trench, the plates, and the asthenosphere are merely visible effects of deeper density-gradient driven circulations, it is still uncertain that observed energy-concentration effects fit the models.