Coherent and consistent decision making for mixed hazardous waste management: The application of quantitative assessment techniques
- Intera Information Technologies Ltd., Henley on Thames (United Kingdom)
- Instituto de Medio Ambiente/CIEMAT (Spain); and others
This paper focuses on predictive modelling capacity for post-disposal safety assessments of land-based disposal facilities, illustrated by presentation of the development and application of a comprehensive, yet practicable, assessment framework. The issues addressed include: (1) land-based disposal practice, (2) the conceptual and mathematical representation of processes leading to release, migration and accumulation of contaminants, (3) the identification and evaluation of relevant assessment end-points, including human health, health of non-human biota and eco-systems, and property and resource effects, (4) the gap between data requirements and data availability, and (5) the application of results in decision making, given the uncertainties in assessment results and the difficulty of comparing qualitatively different impacts arising in different temporal and spatial scales. The paper illustrates the issues with examples based on disposal of metals and radionuclides to shallow facilities. The types of disposal facility considered include features consistent with facilities for radioactive wastes as well as other types of design more typical of hazardous wastes. The intention is to raise the question of whether radioactive and other hazardous wastes are being consistently managed, and to show that assessment methods are being developed which can provide quantitative information on the levels of environmental impact as well as a consistent approach for different types of waste, such methods can then be applied to mixed hazardous wastes contained radionuclides as well as other contaminants. The remaining question is whether the will exists to employ them. The discussion and worked illustrations are based on a methodology developed and being extended within the current European Atomic Energy Community`s cost-sharing research program on radioactive waste management and disposal, with co-funding support from Empresa Nacional de Residuous Radiactivos SA, Spain.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States). Coll. of Engineering and Mines; New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM (United States); Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC), Las Cruces, NM (United States); US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 121068
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940225-Vol.2; TRN: 95:007146-0047
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste management `94: working towards a cleaner environment, Tucson, AZ (United States), 27 Feb - 3 Mar 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of Technology and programs for Radioactive Waste Management and Environmental Restoration. Volume 2; Post, R.G. [ed.] [Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). College of Engineering and Mines]; PB: 750 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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