Environmental ethics and professional practice: A case study of an environmental challenge for century 2000
- Nuclear Waste Project Office, Carson City, NV (United States)
Objective resolution of environmental issues involves questions of facts and values, and, for environmental issues to be resolved ethically, a proper synthesis of environmental facts with questions of ethics must occur. In this case study, the proposal by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to use the Yucca Mountain site in southwest Nevada as a deep geologic repository for the permanent disposal of the nation`s high-level nuclear waste is examined in part in the context of the {open_quotes}Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice for Environmental Professionals{close_quotes} adopted by the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP). Current plans are that a repository at the Yucca Mountain site would begin functioning in 2010 and would be sealed after about 150 years. The requirement that a geologic repository must isolate nuclear waste from the environment for at least 10,000 years poses unique challenges to environmental professionals. This case study also analyzes the challenges in terms of the implications of a new federal Executive Order on Ecosystem Management and corresponding internal orders within all federal agencies to conform to the Executive Order. The imposition of the principles and practices of ecosystem-based resource management on federal agencies provides an opportunity to also address, in the context of the DOE Yucca Mountain Project, (1) the ecosystem approach to environmental management, (2) concepts of holistic resource management planning, and (3) the concepts of sustainability and biodiversity. Within this framework there are important implications for environmental ethics and professional practice that must remain at the forefront of concerns of the NAEP over the next two decades.
- Research Organization:
- National Association of Environmental Professionals, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 125966
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9506115-; TRN: 95:006735-0060
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 20. National Association of Environmental Professionals annual conference and exposition: environmental challenges - the next twenty years, Washington, DC (United States), 10-13 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Environmental challenges: The next 20 years. Proceedings; PB: 932 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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