Department of Energy mission plan for the civilian radioactive waste management program

Book · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5660153

Shaw, G H

Volume I is the Mission Plan itself, Volume II is a 700+-page collection of public comments on the Draft Mission Plan, and Volume III contains DOE responses to the public comments. Taken as a whole, the document illustrates the development of an agency approach to solving a problem, and the extent to which public input may or may not influence that approach. The Mission Plan itself is DOE's clear statement of how it proposes to go about selecting a permanent site for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste: spent fuel from civilian nuclear power plants and high-level waste produced in reprocessing both civilian and military nuclear materials. Since this program is focused upon site selection based to a large extent upon geologic factors important in inhibiting the release of radionuclides for a long interval of time, it is of considerable interest to see how DOE has organized the necessary geologic investigations, and to what extent it proposes to concentrate on the geologic aspects. A key element in the high-level waste disposal program is public confidence in the process. If the public perceives that DOE is continuing investigations at one or more sites when substantial evidence shows that the site(s) are not geologically favorable, then public confidence in the program will disappear. It remains to be seen whether this Mission Plan will be considered the planning document for a successful, carefully organized program of geological input to public policy or merely an element in a record of bureaucratic failure.

• OSTI ID: 5660153
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
056000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Legislation & Regulations-- (1987-)
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
290600 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Nuclear Energy
FINANCING
GEOLOGIC SURVEYS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PLANNING
PUBLIC OPINION
PUBLIC RELATIONS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SITE SELECTION
SURVEYS
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES