Scientific certainty and the laws that govern location of a potential high-level nuclear waste repository

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.     

Data search and environmental hazard assessment for post-seveso chemicals

After the serious accident with a chemical industrial plant at Seveso (Italy) in 1976, the Commission of the European Communities has made a directive on major accidents, usually called the Post-Seveso Guideline. In its annex III, a list of 178 substances is given for which potentially dangerous volumes in case of an accident are defined on the basis of human health criteria. For the implementation of environmental criteria, information on toxicity to aquatic organisms, dilution, and physical behavior in water is needed. A literature search for relevant data on these 178 substances revealed aquatic toxicity data for 116 substances, but only for 87 substances sufficient data were available to make a hazard assessment. As an example, the River Rhine was used to calculate the critical quantities that, after a sudden discharge in the Swiss part, could cause damage at the Dutch part some 800 km downstream. In the absence of a common opinion on the criteria for being a major accident and a serious environmental hazard, the impact of different criteria quantities is discussed. If, for example, in the whole River Rhine a mortality of 5% of the aquatic species is chosen as the criterion for damage to the ecosystem, the critical quantities as mentioned in the EEC directive have to be lowered drastically for the majority of the substances. For 18 substances it could be shown that release of the mentioned quantities would be catastrophic for aquatic life in the whole river.     

化工厂环境风险评估方法探讨

对某化工厂事故隐患进行了周密调查及工程分析，筛选出主要风险因子并进行风险预测；运用概率统计法对不同生产方案、不同污染源强及不同环境功能区的污染风险进行了综合评价研究。     

环境科学中的核技术应用问题

本文论述核技术发展对环境科学的积极作用，并全面介绍主要包括辐照、示踪、核分析以及同位素测量在内的核技术在该学科中应用的各个方面。通过此项技术的应用现状、前景以及需要具备的基本条件等，提出了有关的具体建议。     

Parametric study of the explosivity of graphite-metals mixtures

The explosivity of dust clouds is greatly influenced by several parameters which depend on the operating conditions, such as the initial turbulence, temperature or ignition energy, but obviously also on the materials composition. In the peculiar case of a mixture of two combustible powders, the physical and chemical properties of both dusts have an impact on the cloud flammability and on its explosivity. Nevertheless, no satisfactory ‘mixing laws’ predicting the mixture behavior are currently available and the composition variable to be considered for such models greatly depend on the safety parameters which have to be determined: from volume ratios for some thermal exchanges and ignition phenomena, to surface proportions for some heterogeneous reactions and molar contents for chemical reactions. This study is mainly focused on graphite/magnesium mixtures as they are encountered during the decommissioning activities of UNGG reactors (Natural Uranium Graphite Gas). Due to the different nature and reactivity of both powders, these mixtures offer a wide range of interests. Firstly, the rate-limiting steps for the combustion of graphite are distinct from those of metals (oxygen diffusion or metal vaporization). Secondly, the flame can be thickened by the presence of radiation during metal combustion, whereas this phenomenon is negligible for pure graphite. Finally, the turbulence of the initial dust cloud is modified by the addition of a second powder. In order to assess the explosivity of graphite/magnesium clouds, a parametric study of the effects of storage humidity, particle size distribution, ignition energy, and initial turbulence has been carried out. In particular, it was clearly demonstrated that the turbulence significantly influences the explosion severity by speeding up the rate of heat release on the one hand and the oxygen diffusion through the boundary layer surrounding particles on the other hand. Moreover, it modifies the mean particle size and the spatial dust distribution in the test vessel, impacting the uniformity of the dust cloud. Thus, the present work demonstrates that the procedures developed for standard tests are not sufficient to assess the dust explosivity in industrial conditions and that an extensive parametric study is relevant to figure out the explosive behavior of solid/solid mixtures subjected to variations of operating conditions.     

某钢铁厂2014年度事故统计分析及预防措施

通过对某钢铁厂2014年发生的事故统计分析,找出事故发生的主要规律和原因,提出预防事故重复发生的措施,达到减少或杜绝事故发生,确保安全生产。     

山区高速公路长大下坡交通安全保障研究

为了解长大下坡对交通安全的影响,控制长大下坡路段交通安全事故发生,本文分析了道路下坡坡度对交通安全事故的影响程度;基于我国交通安全事故形势,建议了以道路坡度和路线长度为控制指标的长大下坡分级标准;分析统计了建设中的德上山区高速长大下坡数量,建议了德上高速长大下坡交通安全设施设置。     

车载有毒液体泄漏渗流污染后果分析

车载有毒液体泄漏后,沿地表扩散的同时亦会发生渗流现象.有毒液体渗流会直接或间接地对土壤和地下水及周边环境造成一定的污染,甚至会对人体造成很大危害,导致中毒等重大事故的发生.为分析泄漏后毒物的浓度在时间和空间上的变化规律,建立了二维渗流方程,开发了二维渗流事故后果分析软件.分析结果表明在假设前提下,毒物泄漏后发生渗流时,毒物浓度沿二维渗流平面呈椭圆形向四周扩散,泄漏点的浓度随泄漏时间的推移而逐渐降低,此结论对于有毒液体泄漏的预防与控制具有重要的意义.     

高速公路事故责任认定探讨

在事故责任认定中应同时考虑司机、交警、管理部门和道路条件等存在的问题,分析并量化各方面应承担的责任,而不能像目前,事故责任几乎仅由司机一方100%承担。以开阳高速(开平到阳江)“1·23”特大交通事故为例,着重论述了当前我国高速公路管理体制存在的弊端,事故责任认定和事故赔偿的不合理性,紧急救援体系的不完善性。并对高速公路事故责任的量化,交通警察现场指挥能力的提高,高速公路管理部门责任的落实与监督,应急救援及强制保险理赔体系的进一步完善提出相应的建议和措施,促进我国交通事故责任认定与落实全过程的科学、合理、公平及规范化。     

价格对中国煤矿事故的影响分析

针对我国目前煤炭产业严峻的安全形势，本文采用、统计的方法，分析了煤炭价格和产量与煤矿安全生产事故之间的相关关系，验证煤炭价格与煤矿安全生产事故的发生存在协整关系，而且煤价是煤矿伤亡事故的致因，并进一步做回归分析，并尝试从价格的角度揭示煤矿安全生产事故发生的规律。