Shifting Priorities at the Department of Energy's Bomb Factories: Protecting Human and Ecological Health |
| |
Authors: | JOANNA BURGER THOMAS M LESCHINE MICHAEL GREENBERG JAMES R KARR MICHAEL GOCHFELD CHARLES W POWERS |
| |
Institution: | (1) Division of Life Sciences, 604 Allison Road, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8082, USA, US;(2) Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, USA, US;(3) Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA, US;(4) CRESP and, School of Marine Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA, US;(5) CRESP, EOHSI, and, E. J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, 33 Livingston Avenue, Suite 100, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-1958, USA, US;(6) CRESP and, Box 355020, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-5020, USA, US;(7) CRESP, EOHSI, and, Environmental and Community Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA, US |
| |
Abstract: | More than 50 years of research, development, manufacture, and testing of nuclear weapons at Department of Energy (DOE) sites
has left a legacy of on-site contamination that often spreads to surrounding areas. Despite substantial cleanup budgets in
the last decade, the DOE's top-to-bottom review team concluded that relatively little actual cleanup has been accomplished,
although milestones have been met and work packages completed. Rather than solely use regulatory constraints to direct cleanup,
many people have suggested that human and ecological health should guide long-term stewardship goals of DOE-managed sites.
The main questions are how ecological and human health considerations should be applied in deciding the extent of cleanup
that contaminated sites should receive and how near-term and longer run considerations of costs and benefits should be balanced
as cleanup decisions are made. One effort to protect ecological integrity is the designation of the largest sites as National
Environmental Research Parks (NERPs). Recently, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) suggested isolating and conserving
DOE sites as a policy priority because of their rich ecological diversity. A more effective long-term stewardship approach
for former nuclear weapons complex sites may emerge if the guiding principles are to (1) reduce risks to human and ecological
health, (2) protect cultural traditions, and (3) lower short- and long-term cleanup and remediation costs. A “net benefits”
perspective that takes both near- and longer-term costs and consequences into account can help illuminate the trade-offs between
expensive cleanup in the near term and the need to assure long-term protection of human health, cultural values, and high
levels of biodiversity and ecological integrity that currently exist at many DOE sites. |
| |
Keywords: | : Department of Energy Priorities Cleanup Trade-offs |
本文献已被 PubMed SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|