Risk to Ecological Resources from Delaying Decommissioning and Waste Management: conceptualization and examples from the Hanford Site - 17156

Conference · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017

OSTI ID:22794557

Burger, Joanna; Gochfeld, Michael ^[1]; Kosson, David; Clarke, James ^[2]; Jeitner, Christian; Pittfield, Taryn ^[3]

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1. Rutgers University (United States)
2. Vanderbilt University (United States)
3. Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation - CRESP (United States)

Ecological evaluation is essential for remediation, restoration, and future land-use decisions for contaminated lands, and forms a basis for many management practices. Ecological evaluations or assessments can also be used to examine the efficacy of remediation and restoration methods, providing valuable data to plan and improve future restoration. Assessments can examine past activities, current conditions, and the effects of future remediation or restoration. In general, ecological evaluations have not been used to assess the effects of delaying remediation. Yet for complicated situations, such as at Hanford Site, where there are dozens of remediation sites still to be completed, understanding the effects of delaying remediation on ecological and eco-cultural resources adds measurably to making sound sequencing decisions. Ecological evaluations are inherently complex compared to human health risk assessment because there are hundreds of species, composing a great number of communities and ecosystems. Ecosystems are dynamic, undergoing changes in response to predictable environmental conditions (succession), as well as unforeseen events. Further, ecosystems respond to remediation and restoration actions, even when they are on adjacent areas. Conducting evaluations of the risk to ecological resources must account for the dynamic nature of ecosystems, and for the dynamic, changing landscape that results from remediation on nearby areas. The approach will provide information for sound decision-making with stakeholder participation. This project was partially funded by CRESP through the Department of Energy (DE-FC01-95EW55084). (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22794557
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--19-WM-17156
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ECOSYSTEMS
HEALTH HAZARDS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
REACTOR DECOMMISSIONING
REMEDIAL ACTION