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

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6.146<br />

6.1.8.4 Impacts <strong>of</strong> Construction and Operation (Preemplacement)<br />

A space disposal approach must consider the total integrated system risk, i.e., the risks<br />

<strong>of</strong> launching wastes into space and the risks associated with the secondary waste streams<br />

generated by waste treatment, the fraction <strong>of</strong> waste that would have to go to terrestrial dis-<br />

posal, and the increase in system complexity. Hence, the short-term health and environmental<br />

impacts would likely be increased, while risks associated with those residual waste forms<br />

that remained on Earth for disposal in a mined geologic repository would likely be decreased.<br />

The environmental and health impacts associated with the latter consideration are expected to<br />

be less significant than those associated with total terrestrial disposal <strong>of</strong> HLW.<br />

In the early years <strong>of</strong> a space disposal program, certain modifications would be required<br />

at Kennedy Space Center, assuming it was selected as the launch site. At the least, this<br />

would involve construction <strong>of</strong> a payload preparation facility. If the total Space Shuttle<br />

traffic (including all space missions) saturated the capability <strong>of</strong> shuttle facilities, then<br />

modifications, or even new facilities (e.g., launch pads), would be necessary. New construc-<br />

tion activities would be designed to have the minimum adverse effect on the area. NASA has<br />

concluded that all potential nonradiological environmental impacts foreseen during normal<br />

operation <strong>of</strong> the Space Shuttle would be localized, brief, controllable, and <strong>of</strong> minimum sever-<br />

ity (NASA 1978). Results <strong>of</strong> an evaluation <strong>of</strong> the incremental impacts <strong>of</strong> construction <strong>of</strong><br />

facilities to accommodate waste disposal via the Shuttle and other environmental impacts <strong>of</strong><br />

the space disposal program are presented below (Bechtel 1979a).<br />

Health Impacts<br />

Normal operation <strong>of</strong> facilities are not expected to cause any significant adverse health<br />

effects from either radiological or nonradiological sources. During abnormal operations (a<br />

reentry and burnup accident) the total population radiological dose could be quite large;<br />

although the estimated average individual dose would be very small.<br />

Radiological Impacts. Health impacts from routine operations would be related primarily<br />

to planned release <strong>of</strong> radioactive and nonradioactive materials. Impacts to man from routine<br />

operations would be derived from three <strong>of</strong> the five operational phases: predisposal treatment<br />

and packaging (reprocessing), transportation, and emplacement.<br />

No significant adverse health effects would be expected from normal operation <strong>of</strong> repro-<br />

cessing facilities (NRC 1976). Incremental effects <strong>of</strong> additional processing to partition<br />

specific nuclides are not expected to change this conclusion.<br />

Health effects caused by terrestrial transportation would be expected to be no different<br />

for space disposal than for other waste disposal options and are assumed to be similar to<br />

those for existing containers that have been reviewed for safety and licensed by regulatory<br />

agencies.<br />

The estimated total occupational whole-body radiation dose from space disposal (the three<br />

operational phases plus the terrestrial repository for secondary waste) is 6340 man-rem/yr

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