Historical Relationship Between Performance Assessment for Radioactive Waste Disposal and Other Types of Risk Assessment in the United States
- Sandia National Laboratories
This paper describes the evolution of the process for assessing the hazards of a geologic disposal system for radioactive waste and, similarly, nuclear power reactors, and the relationship of this process with other assessments of risk, particularly assessments of hazards from manufactured carcinogenic chemicals during use and disposal. This perspective reviews the common history of scientific concepts for risk assessment developed to the 1950s. Computational tools and techniques developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s to analyze the reliability of nuclear weapon delivery systems were adopted in the early 1970s for probabilistic risk assessment of nuclear power reactors, a technology for which behavior was unknown. In turn, these analyses became an important foundation for performance assessment of nuclear waste disposal in the late 1970s. The evaluation of risk to human health and the environment from chemical hazards is built upon methods for assessing the dose response of radionuclides in the 1950s. Despite a shared background, however, societal events, often in the form of legislation, have affected the development path for risk assessment for human health, producing dissimilarities between these risk assessments and those for nuclear facilities. An important difference is the regulator's interest in accounting for uncertainty and the tools used to evaluate it.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (US); Sandia National Labs., Livermore, CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 759847
- Report Number(s):
- SAND99-1147J
- Journal Information:
- Risk Analysis, Journal Name: Risk Analysis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
CALCULATION METHODS
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
POLICY ANALYSIS
PROBABILISTIC RISK ASSESSMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RISK ASSESSMENT