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

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erations permit, as opposed to a single national repository. This strategy would
integrate societal and political concerns as well as technical considerations.
Possible advantages of
the regional concept include:
* More equitable distribution of waste management costs;
* Enhanced ability to gain public and political acceptance through cooperative par-
ticipation with state and local officials and groups;
* Experience with various environments and emplacement geologic media sooner than
previously planned, especially with near simultaneous development of several
repositories; and
* Reduction of transportation requirements and attendant risks.
Definition of regions for nuclear waste isolation can be influenced by a number of
technical, societal, and political factors. The major technical factor is the geographic
distribution of acceptable geologies, but a number of other factors must also be considered.
An obvious regional division of the U.S. is one based upon individual states or com-
binations of states. The predominant factors that affect regional boundaries derived from
the boundaries of states are the historical, social, geographical, and political factors
that have existed to define the states themselves.
Regions established strictly on existing political or commercial factors could yield a
wide region-to-region variation in the quantities of waste generated. Thus, there is some
incentive to develop a regional structure that is based on reasonably uniform waste genera-
tion. Locations of nuclear generating capacity or electrical usage may provide an equitable
basis for regional structures. Extensive electrical grid interconnections may extend the
use of nuclear generated power far beyond plant locations and should be considered.
Although multiple sites themselves (except to the extent provided by different geolo-
gies) provide no guarantee against errors in disposal technology or repository design, they
do help minimize the consequences of errors if the resulting failures are random and widely
spaced in location and time (i.e., well after the repositories have been sealed). The poten-
tial for reduced consequences lies in the possibility of some repositories remaining unaf-
fected, and the use of knowledge gained from the first incident to prevent subsequent
incidents at other locations.
While at the present time the Department of Energy is not able to propose a specific
regional siting program, regional siting is presently considered, among other factors, in
the site-selection process. The Department is continuing to study the regional siting con-
cept and should a regional siting plan be adopted, the data from the first repository could
be incorporated in such a plan.