UM Scientists Call for Local, Regional Control of Radioactive Waste Sites
July 14, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The withdrawal of Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository has reopened the debate over how and where to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste.
In the July 10 issue of Science, University of Michigan geologist Rodney Ewing and Princeton University nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel argue that, while federal agencies should set standards and issue licenses for approval of nuclear facilities, local communities and states should have final say on facility sitings.
Ewing and von Hippel propose the development of multiple sites that would service the regions where nuclear reactors are located.
"The main goal ... should be to provide the U.S. with multiple alternatives and substantial public involvement in an open siting and design process that requires acceptance by host communities and states," they write.
Efforts should be directed at locating storage facilities in the nation's northeastern, southeastern, midwestern and western regions, the authors write. States within a given region should be responsible for developing solutions that suit their particular circumstances.
With this scenario, the transportation of nuclear waste over long distances, which was a concern with the Yucca Mountain site, would be less of a problem because interim storage or geologic disposal sites could be located closer to reactors.
"This regional approach would be similar to the current approach in Europe, where spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste from about 150 reactors and reprocessing plants is to be moved to a number of geologic repositories in a variety of rock types," said Ewing.
Ewing and von Hippel also analyze the reasons why Yucca Mountain, selected by the U.S. Congress in 1987 as the only site to be investigated for long-term nuclear waste disposal, finally was shelved after more than three decades of often contentious debate.
The reasons include the site's geology, management problems, important changes in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard, unreliable funding and the failure to involve local communities in the decision-making process.
Source: University of Michigan.
| Selected Nuclear Waste Repository Standards |
IEC TR 62235
Nuclear facilities Instrumentation and control systems important to safety Systems of interim storage and final repository of nuclear fuel and waste-Edition 1 |
ASTM C 1174
Standard Practice for Prediction of the Long-Term Behavior of Materials, Including Waste Forms, Used in Engineered Barrier Systems (EBS) for Geological Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Waste |
ASTM C 1454
Standard Guide for Pyrophoricity/Combustibility Testing in Support of Pyrophoricity Analyses of Metallic Uranium Spent Nuclear Fuel |
UNI 11195
Radioactive waste packages - Information system for the management of a surface repository Category 2 packages |