Scientific certainty and the laws that govern location of a potential high-level nuclear waste repository |
| |
Authors: | Donald A Brown John Lemons |
| |
Institution: | (1) Office of Chief Counsel, Bureau of Hazardous Sites and Superfund Enforcement, City Towers Building, 4th Floor 301 Chestnut Street, 17101-2702 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA;(2) Department of Life Sciences, University of New England, 04005-9599 Biddeford, Maine, USA |
| |
Abstract: | Recent studies have questioned the ability of the Department of Energy to successfully construct and operate a high-level
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA, consistent with current Environmental Protection Agency standards
and Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations. Questions focus on whether demonstration of compliance with the agency's standards
is based too much on numerical calculations and analyses that the Department of Energy must conduct to project the long-term
performance of the repository. Unless these questions are resolved, the licensing of the repository could be withheld or delayed
by litigation. This article reviews the extent to which laws that govern the siting of high-level nuclear waste repositories
require scientific certainty in any findings about the environmental consequences of locating a repository. |
| |
Keywords: | Yucca Mountain Nevada Nuclear waste Environmental law |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|