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U.S. Department of Energy
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Projected environmental impacts of radioactive material transportation to the first US repository site

Conference ·
OSTI ID:59901
This paper discusses the relative national environmental impacts of transporting nuclear wastes to each of the nine candidate repository sites in the United States. Several of the potential sites are closely clustered and, for the purpose of distance and routing calculations, are treated as a single location. These are: Cypress Creek Dome and Richton Dome in Mississippi (Gulf Interior Region), Deaf Smith County and Swisher County sites in Texas (Permian Basin), and Davis Canyon and Lavender Canyon site in Utah (Paradox Basin). The remaining sites are: Vacherie Dome, Louisiana; Yucca Mountain, Nevada; and Hanford Reservation, Washington. For compatibility with both the repository system authorized by the NWPA and with the MRS option, two separate scenarios were analyzed. In belief, they are (1) shipment of spent fuel and high-level wastes (HLW) directly from waste generators to a repository (Reference Case) and (2) shipment of spent fuel to a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility and then to a repository. Between 17 and 38 truck accident fatalities, between 1.4 and 7.7 rail accident fatalities, and between 0.22 and 12 radiological health effects can be expected to occur as a result of radioactive material transportation during the 26-year operating period of the first repository. During the same period in the United States, about 65,000 total deaths from truck accidents and about 32,000 total deaths from rail accidents would occur; also an estimated 58,300 cancer fatalities are predicted to occur in the United States during a 26-year period from exposure to background radiation alone (not including medical and other manmade sources). The risks reported here are upper limits and are small by comparison with the "natural background" of risks of the same type. 3 refs., 6 tabs.
Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830; AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
59901
Report Number(s):
SAND--85-2206C; IAEA-SM--286/88; CONF-860604--22; ON: DE86011647
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English