In an essay for NYU’s Democracy Project, David F. Levi, a former federal judge

and director emeritus of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law, reflected on the

negotiations he facilitated in New Mexico about the renewal of the hazardous waste

permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a deep geologic repository for

plutonium-contaminated waste generated in the fabrication of nuclear weapons. Judge

Levi’s essay is entitled “Participatory Democracy in Action.”