A Multidisciplinary Paradigm and Approach to Protecting Human Health and the Environment, Society, and Stakeholders at Nuclear Facilities - 12244
- Division of Life Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ (United States)
- Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), Rutgers University, Piscataway NY, USA and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (United States)
As the Department of Energy (DOE) continues to remediate its lands, and to consider moving toward long-term stewardship and the development of energy parks on its industrial, remediated land, it is essential to adequately characterize the environment around such facilities to protect society, human health, and the environment. While DOE sites re considering several different land-use scenarios, all of them require adequate protection of the environment. Even if DOE lands are developed for energy parks that are mainly for industrializes sections of DOE lands that will not be remediated to residential standards, there is still the need to consider the protection of human health and the environment. We present an approach to characterization and establishment of teams that will gather the information, and integrate that information for a full range of stakeholders from technical personnel, to public policy makers, and that public. Such information is needed to establish baselines, site new energy facilities in energy parks, protect existing nuclear facilities and nuclear wastes, improve the basis for emergency planning, devise suitable monitoring schemes to ensure continued protection, provide data to track local and regional response changes, and for mitigation, remediation and decommissioning planning. We suggest that there are five categories of information or data needs, including 1) geophysical, sources, fate and transport, 2) biological systems, 3) human health, 4) stakeholder and environmental justice, and 5) societal, economic, and political. These informational needs are more expansive than the traditional site characterization, but encompass a suite of physical, biological, and societal needs to protect all aspects of human health and the environment, not just physical health. We suggest a Site Committee be established that oversees technical teams for each of the major informational categories, with appropriate representation among teams and with a broad involvement of a range of governmental personnel, natural and social scientists, Native Americans, environmental justice communities, and other stakeholders. Such informational teams (and Oversight Committee) would report to a DOE-designated authority or Citizen's Advisory Board. Although designed for nuclear facilities and energy parks on DOE lands, the templates and information teams can be adapted for other hazardous facilities, such as a mercury storage facility at Oak Ridge. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9-332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22293532
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-14-WM-12244; TRN: US14V1187115056
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2012: Waste Management 2012 conference on improving the future in waste management, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 1 Mar 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 48 refs.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Annual Site Environmental Report: 2009(ASER)
Long-Term Stewardship: Institutional Controls on Department of Energy Sites. Development and Management of Institutional Controls at U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management Sites
Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
DECOMMISSIONING
ENERGY FACILITIES
ENERGY PARKS
ENVIRONMENT
INFORMATION
MERCURY
MONITORING
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PLANNING
PUBLIC HEALTH
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REMEDIAL ACTION
SAFETY
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
STORAGE FACILITIES