Can waste management become an issue for the public acceptance of fusion?
- Safety Technology Inst., Ispra (Italy)
Studies on the public perception of risks indicate that: (1) The most feared risks, together with {open_quotes}AIDS{close_quotes} and {open_quotes}crime{close_quotes}, are those related to {open_quotes}nuclear accidents{close_quotes} and {open_quotes}nuclear waste{close_quotes}, which are almost as dreadful as {open_quotes}nuclear war{close_quotes} whereas, {open_quotes}nuclear power production{close_quotes} raises less concern, almost comparable to that of other social risks. (2) Low probability, high consequence risks are those of most concern. Scarce consideration is given by the public to the likelihood of occurrence. The management strategies for fusion waste should be presented taking into account the previous statements. Sensible items are: (1) Planned waste management procedures should be describe in a well detailed fashion, indicating the aim of complying with conservative limits of environmental impact. (2) The build-up of optimistic thoughts on the complete lack of potential hazard in fusion waste as well as the opposite opinion of little or no progress at all by referring to fission waste should be avoided. (3) The hazards related to fission waste should not be over emphasized. It should be stated instead that studies on this waste have produced effective handling and segregation concepts, which are being progressively applied even to conventional waste in order to reduce risks which were not perceived before. This mature and well proven technology will be applied where pertinent to fusion waste too.
- OSTI ID:
- 196899
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940664--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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