Overview

It is now becoming clear that relatively few U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) waste sites will be cleaned up to the point where they can be released for unrestricted use. Long-term stewardship (activities to protect human health and the environment from hazards that may remain at its sites after cessation of remediation) will be required for over 100 of the 144 waste sites under DOE control (U.S. Department of Energy, 1999). After stabilizing wastes that remain on site and containing them as well as is feasible, DOE intends to rely on stewardship for as long as hazards persist-in many cases, indefinitely. Physical containment barriers, the management systems upon which their long-term reliability depends, and institutional controls intended to prevent exposure of people and the environment to the remaining site hazards, will have to be maintained at some DOE sites for an indefinite period of time. The Committee on Remediation of Buried and Tank Wastes finds that much regarding DOE's intended reliance on long-term stewardship is at this point problematic. The details of long-term stewardship planning are yet to be specified, the adequacy of funding is not assured, and there is no convincing evidence that institutional controls and other stewardship measures are reliable over the long term. Scientific understanding of the factors that govern the long-term behavior of residual contaminants in the environment is not adequate. Yet, the likelihood that institutional management measures will fail at some point is relatively high, underscoring the need to assure that decisions made in the near term are based on the best available science. Improving institutional capabilities can be expected to be every bit as difficult as improving scientific and technical ones, but without improved understanding of why and how institutions succeed and fail, the follow-through necessary to assure that long-term stewardship remains effective cannot reliably be counted on to occur. Long-Term Institutional Management of U.S. Department of Energy Legacy Waste Sites examines the capabilities and limitations of the scientific, technical, and human and institutional systems that compose the measures that DOE expects to put into place at potentially hazardous, residually contaminated sites.

Full Product Details

Author:   Committee on the Remediation of Buried and Tank Wastes ,  Board on Radioactive Waste Management ,  Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources ,  Division on Earth and Life Studies
Publisher:   National Academies Press
Imprint:   National Academies Press
ISBN:  

9780309071864

ISBN 10:   0309071860
Pages:   178
Publication Date:   09 October 2000
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Synopsis; Summary; Introduction; Long-Term Stewardship; Transition From Cleanup to Stewardship ; Purpose of the Study; Long-Term Institutional Management; Conceptual Framework; General Requirements; Site Disposition Decisions from a Long-Term Institutional Management Perspective; Contaminant Reduction; Future States; Constraints and Limitations; Future Directions for Improvements; Contaminant Isolation; Description of the Technologies; Performance Monitoring of Engineered Barriers and Stabilized Wastes; Characteristics of Ideal Contaminant Isolation Measures; Constraints and Limitations; Future Directions for Improvement; Stewardship Activities; Components of a Comprehensive Stewardship Program; Typical Institutional Controls; Constraints and Limitations; Characteristics of an Effective Stewardship Program; Future Directions for Improving Stewardship; Relevant Research and Development Needs; Contextual Factors; Risk; Scientific and Technical Capability; Institutional Capability; Cost; Laws and Regulations; Values of Interested and Affected Parties; Others Sites; Interaction Among Contextual Factors Within a Climate of Uncertainty; Fundamental Limits on Technical and Institutional Capabilities; Technical Capabilities and Limitations; Institutional Capabilities and Limitations; Broad Societal Factors; Strengthening Links Between Technical and Institutional Capabilities; Design Principles and Criteria for an Effective Long-Term Institutional Management System: Findings and Recommendations; Design Principles and Criteria; Findings; Recommendations; References Cited; Appendixes; A Committee's Statement of Task; B Closure Plans for Major Doe Sites; C Committee Information Gathering Meetings; D Summary of Recent Stewardship Studies; E Existing Legal Structure for Closure of the Weapons Complex Sites; F Disposition of the Nevada Test Site; G Mathematical Models Used for Site Closure Decisions; H Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Consultants; I Definitions of Terms Used in This Report; Figures; 1 Map of DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex Sites; 2 Long-Term Institutional Management Conceptual Framework; Tables; 1 Institutional Management Characteristics, Criteria, and Principles Found in This Report; 2 Summary of Solid Waste Across the DOE Complex; Sidebars; 1-1 Development of DOE Long-Term Stewardship Report; 2-1 Hanford Site Reactor 'Interim Safe Storage'; 4-1 Hanford Site Groundwater/Vadose Zone Integration Project; 4-2 How Can Radiation Exposures from Waste Disposal be ALARA?; 4-3 The Hanford Barrier; 5-1 Love Canal, New York: an Example of Failed Stewardship; 5-2 The Bikini Atoll Experience: Inherent Fallibility of Institutional Controls and the Virtues of Defense in Depth ; 5-3 Institutional Controls at Yucca Mountain Geological Repository; 5-4 Trust Funds and Institutional Management; 7-1 Role of Models, Site Data, and Science and Technology in Risk Assessment and Management; 7-2 Evaluation of Nevada Test Site Groundwater Modeling; 7-3 Reindustrialization of the Mound Site; 7-4 Basic Research Needs in Subsurface Science

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Committee on the Remediation of Buried and Tank Wastes, Board on Radioactive Waste Management, National Research Council

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