Download or read book The Dilemma of Siting a High Level Nuclear Waste Repository written by D. Easterling and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores siting dilemmas - situations in which an "authority" (e.g., Congress, a consortium of utilities) deems it in the best interest of society to build a facility such as an incinerator, but opponents living near the proposed site thwart the plan. Facility developers typically attribute local opposition to selfishness or radically inaccurate views of the risks posed by the facility. We examine the validity of these conclusions by looking in depth at the psychological response that arises when residents are faced with the prospect of living near waste disposal facilities. The particular siting dilemma considered in this book is the problem of how to "dispose" of the high-level nuclear wastes accumulating at nuclear power plants in the United States. These wastes, in the form of "spent" fuel rods, will emit dangerous levels of radioactivity for thousands of years - anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 years, depending on the margin of safety one adopts. The current proposal is to encase the spent fuel in corrosion-resistant canisters and then to bury these canisters deep underground in a geologic repository. The two of us became involved with the high-level waste issue in 1986 as part of an interdisciplinary research team hired by the State of Nevada. The charge of this team was to estimate the socioeconomic impacts that would accompany a repository if it were built at Yucca Mountain, approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Download or read book The Dilemma of Siting a High Level Nuclear Waste Repository written by D. Easterling and published by . This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Siting Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities written by Mary R. English and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1992-06-16 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many lament the difficulty of siting hazardous waste facilities that are intended to benefit the public at large but are locally unwanted. Many label local opposition as purely self-interested; as simply a function of the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) syndrome. Drawing upon the experience of states trying to site new low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities, Mary English argues that we need to think harder and look deeper, to understand--and, possibly, solve--the siting dilemma. The 1980 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act ushered in a new era in low-level radioactive waste disposal; one of vastly increased state responsibility. By a 1985 amendment, states were given until January 1993 to develop a new system of disposal facilities. English reviews the progress they have made, focusing on one difficulty: that of finding technically and socially acceptable sites. She then turns to issues concerning authority, trust, risk, and justice that help to shape the siting dilemma. This book is made highly readable by vivid examples drawn from recent efforts to site low-level waste disposal facilities. The volume will be a helpful resource to those in the public and private sectors who are immediately concerned with the siting of radioactive waste disposal facilities, hazardous waste facilities, solid waste landfills, incinerators, etc., as well as social scientists who are studying this problem.
Download or read book Site Unseen written by Gerald Jacob and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gerald Jacob views the history of public policy regarding nuclear waste, culminating in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy act and its aftermath. The 1982 act promised a solution, but Jacob believes it deferred to the interests of the nuclear utilities and the U.S. Department of Energy. He describes how the nuclear establishment used science and geography to protect its interests and dominate nuclear waste policy making. He examines the federal promotion of nuclear power, and asserts that federal policies strong-armed public opposition, and locked the country into a single, but flawed waste disposal solution.
Download or read book Nuclear Waste Disposal written by Warren S. Melfort and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2003 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The disposal of nuclear waste is becoming a major concern. Many nuclear power plants around the world are nearing the end of their operating lives. This is particularly true in the United States where most nuclear power plants are approaching the end of the operational time period allowed in their licenses. The disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and nuclear missiles is as politically intense an issue as the plants and missiles themselves. Yet the three issues have remained curiously separate in spite of their close physical ties. Few debates on nuclear power or nuclear weapons discuss the problems of waste disposal should the power plant or missile be decommissioned. Few debates on nuclear waste disposal discuss the opportunities to close nuclear power plants or get rid of nuclear weapons a disposal site would afford. Nuclear waste can be generally classified a either "low level" radioactive waste or "high level" radioactive waste. Low level nuclear waste usually includes material used to handle the highly radioactive parts of nuclear reactors (i.e. cooling water pipes and radiation suits) and waste from medical procedures involving radioactive treatments or x-rays. Low level waste is comparatively easy to dispose of. The level of radioactivity and the half life of the radioactive isotopes in low level waste is relatively small. Storing the waste for a period of 10 to 50 years will allow most of the radioactive isotopes in low level waste to decay, at which point the waste can be disposed of as normal refuse. High level radioactive waste is generally material from the core of the nuclear reactor or nuclear weapon. This waste includes uranium, plutonium, and other highly radioactive elements made during fission. Most of the radioactive isotopes in high level waste emit large amounts of radiation and have extremely long half-lives (some longer than 100,000 years) creating long time periods before the waste will settle to safe levels of radioactivity. This new book explores the issues pertaining, either directly or indirectly, to nuclear waste disposal.
Download or read book Nuclear Energy s Dilemma written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Public Reactions to Nuclear Waste written by Riley E. Dunlap and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear waste is going nowhere, and neither is the debate over its disposal. The problem, growing every day, has proven intractable, with policymakers on one side, armed with daunting technical data, and the public on the other, declaring: not in my backyard. This timely volume offers a look past our present impasse into the nature and roots of public viewpoints on nuclear waste disposal. A much-needed supplement to the largely technical literature on this problem, the book provides extensive studies of the reaction of citizens--whether rural or urban, near-site residents or prospective visitors--to proposed nuclear waste sites around the nation, particularly Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Conducted by distinguished sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, and economists, these studies constitute the most comprehensive account available of the impact of public perceptions and opinions on the nuclear waste policy process in the United States. As such, the collection will clarify the politics of nuclear waste siting and will give impetus to the stalled debate over the issue. Contributors. Rodney K. Baxter, Julia G. Brody, Bruce Clary, Lori Cramer, William H. Desvousges, Riley E. Dunlap, Douglas Easterling, Judy K. Fleishman, James Flynn, William R. Freudenburg, Michael E. Kraft, Richard S. Krannich, Howard Kunreuther, Mark Layman, Ronald L. Little, Robert Cameron Mitchell, Alvin H. Mushkatel, Joanne M. Nigg, K. David Pijawka, Eugene A. Rosa, Paul Slovic
Download or read book High level Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal written by and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Workshops for State Review of Site Suitability Criteria for High level Radioactive Waste Repositories written by and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nuclear Waste written by Mark Gaffigan and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-07 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Statement of Mark Gaffigan, Mng. Dir., Natural Resources and Environment, GAO. The U.S. has generated over 75,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste -- extremely hazardous substances -- at 80 sites in 35 states and is expected to more than double that amount by 2055. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) required the Dept. of Energy (DOE) to investigate a geologic repository for nuclear waste. In 1987, Congress amended NWPA to direct DOE to focus on a repository at Yucca Mountain, NV. In 2008, DOE submitted a license application for the repository but in March 2010 moved to withdraw it. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Comm. (NRC) or the courts -- as a result of federal lawsuits -- might compel DOE to resume the licensing process. GAO has reported on options for interim storage of this waste and the effects a Yucca Mountain termination could have on both commercial waste and DOE-managed waste. This testimony is based on that prior work and discusses (1) the status of the Yucca Mountain repository and national policy for nuclear waste disposal, (2) options for storing nuclear waste and their benefits and challenges, and (3) principal lessons that can be learned from past nuclear waste management efforts. Figures. This is a print on demand report.
Download or read book One Hundred Centuries Of Solitude written by James Flynn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Time is both the ally of high-level nuclear waste (HLNW) managers and the enemy. It is the ally because the radioactivity in elements and isotopes decreases with age, making the waste progressively less dangerous to human health and safety and the environment. This rate of radioactive decline varies, in some cases diminishing by half (the half life) in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years. In other cases the decay process takes centuries or hundreds of thousands of years before the wastes are safe for human contact. The problem as now conceptualized for HLNW managers is simple to state if not easy to achieve. The HLNW needs to be secured in some fashion until it decays, by virtue of its physical nature, to safe levels. Another possible future solution, not currently available, might be to change the ~~ructure of HLNW through high-technology processing and thus decompose the waste into units with different and less lengthy radioactivity. Learning whether this processing is a future option will require patience and generous amounts of time for research.
Download or read book Nuclear Waste written by Gary L. Jones and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2001-09 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The West Valley nuclear facility (WVNF), in W. NY State, was built to convert spent nuclear fuel (NF) from comm'l. reactors into reusable nuclear fuel. However, the market for reprocessed NF was limited; new, more restrictive health and safety standards raised concerns about the facility; and there was concern about reprocessed NF being used to make nuclear weapons. The WVNF was permanently shutdown in the 1970s, and cleanup began in the 1980s. This report examines: the status of the cleanup; factors that may be hindering the cleanup; the degree of certainty in the DoE's est. of total cleanup costs and schedule; and the degree to which the WVNF cleanup may reflect larger cleanup challenges.
Download or read book Managing the nation s commercial high level radioactive waste written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Second Waste Repository Site Selection written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Subcommittee on Energy Research and Development and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Disposition of High Level Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2001-07-05 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focused attention by world leaders is needed to address the substantial challenges posed by disposal of spent nuclear fuel from reactors and high-level radioactive waste from processing such fuel. The biggest challenges in achieving safe and secure storage and permanent waste disposal are societal, although technical challenges remain. Disposition of radioactive wastes in a deep geological repository is a sound approach as long as it progresses through a stepwise decision-making process that takes advantage of technical advances, public participation, and international cooperation. Written for concerned citizens as well as policymakers, this book was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and waste management organizations in eight other countries.
Download or read book One Hundred Centuries Of Solitude written by James Flynn and published by Westview Press. This book was released on 1995-06-27 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, it directed the Department of Energy to locate, study, license, and develop a deep underground repository for high-level nuclear wastes. As the authors of this study show, by 1987 the program was in shambles, beset by opposition from every state that had a potential storage site. Congress passed amendments to the original legislation that designated Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the only site for study and development.The authors trace the evolution of the political and social turmoil created by this difficult site-selection process, looking at the history of the nation's repository program, the nature of the public's concerns, and the effects of intergovernmental conflict. They also examine how other countries have addressed similar problems. Turning to a promising development—a dry-cask storage method judged by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be safe for a century or more—they urge a full reassessment of the nation's high-level nuclear waste policies and of existing DOE programs.The book concludes with carefully considered recommendations for a new national policy for the storage of hazardous nuclear waste. Everyone concerned about nuclear waste and how it should be managed at the federal, state, and local levels will find valuable information in this in-depth study of the issues at hand.
Download or read book A Review of the President s Recommendation to Develop a Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain Nevada written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
