scholarly journals Risk perception on management of nuclear high-level and transuranic waste storage

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Dees
1991 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Stoffle ◽  
Michael W. Traugott ◽  
John V. Stone ◽  
Paula D. McIntyre ◽  
Florence V. Jensen ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
L. Symochko ◽  
О. Hafiiyak ◽  
O. Demyanyuk

The article presents the results of monitoring the area adjacent to the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve for the detection of unauthorized landfills and examines the ecological status of these soils. Four unauthorized landfills of solid waste in Pidhirna, Stanislav, Steryshora, and Feresok tracts with an area of 0.15 to 1.5 ha with a waste accumulation period of 12–22 years and different morphological composition which had a significant impact on the ecological status of the soil have been identified. Bioindication methods have shown changes in the soil microbial cenoses under the direct influence of unauthorized landfills of solid waste, namely increased the number of organotrophic bacteria and micromycetes and decreased number of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms. The highest number of bacteria using nitrogen of organic compounds (25.36–28.61 million CFU/g soil) and micromycetes (51.8–76.8 thousand CFU/g soil) was fixed in the soils in the tract PidhirnaandFeresok with advantage of 1.5–1.7 times and 2.5–3.8 times compared to the soil of the protected area. Increasing the number of pedotrophic and oligotrophic microorganisms and microorganisms that assimilate organic forms of nitrogen, on average, 2.70, 2.84 and 1.48 times has been affected the direction of the main soil-microbiological processes. The coefficient of oligotrophicity varied in the range of 0.21–0.30, mineralization-immobilization one — 1.22–1.38, pedotrophic one — 0.55–0.96 with a maximum in the soil of the landfill in the tracts of Feresok and Pidhirna, which indicates the strengthening of microbiological processes of mineralization and decomposition of soil organic matter, including humus compounds. A close relationship was established between the duration of solid waste storage in a certain area and the level of soil phytotoxicity (r = 0.92). In the soil of landfills in Pidhirna, Steryshora and Feresok tracts, the phytotoxicity index is significant (over 50%), which indicates a high level of soil ecosystem pollution and increased environmental risks in the area of unauthorized accumulation of solid waste.


Author(s):  
Ewoud Verhoef ◽  
Hans Code´e ◽  
Vladan Sˇtefula ◽  
Charles McCombie

Geological disposal is an essential component of the long-term management of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Implementation of a suitable deep repository may, however, be difficult or impossible in some (especially small) countries because of challenging geological conditions or restricted siting options, or because of the high costs involved. For these countries, shared regional or international storage and disposal facilities are a necessity. The European Parliament and the EC have both expressed support for concepts that could lead to regional shared facilities being implemented in the EU. The EC, therefore, funded two projects that form the first two steps of a staged process towards the implementation of shared regional or international storage and disposal facilities. In the period 2003 to 2005, the EC funded SAPIERR I, a project devoted to pilot studies on the feasibility of shared regional storage facilities and geological repositories, for use by European countries. The studies showed that shared regional repositories are feasible, but also that, if they are to be implemented, even some decades ahead, efforts must already be increased now. The first step would be to establish a structured framework for the work on regional repositories. This is the goal of SAPIERR II (2006–2008): to develop possible practical implementation strategies and organisational structures. These will enable a formalised, structured European Development Organisation (EDO) to be established in 2008 or afterwards for working on shared EU radioactive waste storage and disposal activities. The EDO can work in parallel with national waste programmes. Participating EU Member States will be able to use the structures developed as, when and if needed for the furtherance of their individual national policies.


Author(s):  
Jay F. Kunze ◽  
James M. Mahar ◽  
Kellen M. Giraud ◽  
C. W. Myers

Siting of nuclear power plants in an underground nuclear park has been proposed by the authors in many previous publications, first focusing on how the present 1200 to 1600 MW-electric light water reactors could be sited underground, then including reprocessing and fuel manufacturing facilities, as well as high level permanent waste storage. Recently the focus has been on siting multiple small modular reactor systems. The recent incident at the Fukushima Daiichi site has prompted the authors to consider what the effects of a natural disaster such as the Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami would have had if these reactors had been located underground. This paper addresses how the reactors might have remained operable — assuming the designs we previously proposed — and what lessons from the Fukushima incident can be learned for underground nuclear power plant designs.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martins ◽  
Nunes ◽  
Lourenço ◽  
Velez-Castro

São Vicente Island (Republic of Cape Verde) lies within the Sahelian zone and faces several natural hazards, one of which is flash flooding. With the purpose of understanding what factors determine flash flood risk perception, a questionnaire entitled Flash Flood Hazard Perception in Cape Verde was applied to 199 subjects. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to identify the primary factors associated with the perception of flash flood risk. Differences between different groups under the same impact factor were also compared. The results indicated that certain socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (gender, level of education, and type of housing) and prior experience correlated with flash flood risk perception. The study also shows statistical differences between the groups. In general, males and the respondents with a high level of education, homeowners, and people with prior experience have better perception of the flash flood risk. These findings can help decision makers to improve effective flash flood risk communication policies and flood risk reduction strategies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. N. OFFUTT-POWELL ◽  
R. P. OJHA ◽  
R. QUALLS-HAMPTON ◽  
S. STONECIPHER ◽  
K. P. SINGH ◽  
...  

SUMMARYLittle information is available about perceptions of influenza vaccination of parents with healthy children in daycare. Therefore, we systematically explored the relationship between parental risk perception and influenza vaccination in children attending daycare. We distributed a self-administered paper survey to parents of children aged 6–59 months attending licensed daycare centres in Tarrant County, Texas. We used conditional logistic regression with penalized conditional likelihood to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% profile likelihood confidence limits (PL) for parental risk-perception factors and influenza vaccination. A high level of parental prevention behaviours (OR 9·1, 95% PL 3·2, 31) and physician recommendation (OR 8·2, 95% PL 2·7, 30) had the highest magnitudes of association with influenza vaccination of healthy children in daycare. Our results provide evidence about critical determinants of influenza vaccination of healthy children in daycare, which could help inform public health interventions aimed at increasing influenza vaccination coverage in this population.


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