Waste management: uncertainties and their implications
There is no shortage of institutional interests involved in waste management: the Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the States, industry, and the public. Not only are they numerous but their roles are not as clearly defined and distinct as they might be in many instances. The DOE has the agency-management responsibility for carrying out the radioactive waste management program, but it has no authority to enforce schedules for regulatory development of standards and criteria and licensing actions. No single Federal agency has the authority to require other agencies to take action concerning radioactive hazards under their jurisdiction, or even to coordinate interagency activities where there is multiple jurisdiction. The nuclear industry had previously assumed that spent fuel would be reprocessed and that the separated high-level waste would be solidified and ultimately consigned to a repository. In April 1977, President Carter decided to indefinitely defer reprocessing and recycling of commercial reactor spent fuel in support of the nation's non-proliferation goals. Among the greatest of the uncertainties, in the view of many in the public, is the potential for harm in the centuries ahead.
- Research Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
- OSTI ID:
- 6235727
- Journal Information:
- Aware; (United States), Other Information: Remarks before the waste management '79 symposium, Tucson, AZ, February 26, 1979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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