Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

Response
D. SPECIFIC SUBJECTS Section 3.4 of the final Statement provides the reader
1. BISK-BENEFIT AALYSIS with some perspectives on the concepts of "risk" as it per-
The Statement should acknowledge and define the special problems of
undertaking risk-benefit analysis in this unusual area, pursue the
analysis in an orderly fashion, and recognize and include nontechnical
values, by integrating political and social concerns with technical
tains to radioactive waste management. If proper comparisons
are made, the reader is given a perspective of the relative
impacts of radiological wastes versus the hazards of other
materials in the environment. Such
Such
comparisons are not
comparisons are not
intended to justify the potential impacts from radioactive
consideration.
waste management.
Frequent criticisms and misperceptions communicated to the Board in- This Statement presents radiological impacts of unin-
volved the analysis of. risk. Many thought risks unduly.minimized; many. tended events first from a consequence viewpoint. The
thought the opposite. Such a range of views results from fragmentation: frequency of occurrence of the particul'ar event is then
of the analysis of risk in the Statement, an overly simplistic technical identified so that if one desires to determine the expected
approach, and lack of sufficient accommodation to nontechnical consider- impact from such an-event one may do so. However, the con-
ations. sequences of an event (in the absence of the frequency of
occurrence) are an upper-bound estimate of the impacts. The
Traditional assessment of environmental consequences attempts to analyze document also identified other criteria in Section 6.2 (in
hazards and risks quantitatively in relation to benefits. The limita- addition to radiological impacts) that the "decision-maker"
tions and difficulties of such quantification in this area, however, would consider in evaluating the various disposal options.
require special caution and consideration which do not appear to have
For the disposal
been technologies
brought analyzed,
to this
bear Statement
in preparing the Statement. A wider range of risks
should
presents radiological impacts under the
be assessed,
sections
including
titled
some ordinary, realistic situations as well "Environmental Analysis of Construction
"Environmental
and Operation"
Analysis
(5.4,
of
as
Construction
some least and
expected. Operation"
Some worst case accidents
(5.4,
used for analysis (the 6.1.1.4, 6.1.2.4 6.1.8.4) and "Environmental Analysis
6.1.1.4, 6.1.2.4 . . . 6.1.8.4) and "Environmental Analysis
meteorite, for example)
SOver
are too extreme.
Long Term" (5.5, 6.1.1.5, 6.1.2.5 . . . 6.1.8.5). Rad-
iological impacts of predisposal activities are addressed in
Sections 4.7 and 4.8. Chapter 7.0 outlines radiological
impact for entire waste management systems.