We are extremely concerned with the proposals outlined in the EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding "low-activity" radioactive waste. It should not be the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s priority to reduce the so-called "regulatory burden" on companies that produce wastes and contaminants, to relax the standards by which nuclear waste can be dumped, or increase the number of possible dump sites for waste generators, particularly when doing so may increase the number of hazards to which a member of the public could be exposed, or when such relaxations would create new potential for irresponsible waste management or otherwise diminish an agency's ability to effectively regulate.Public Citizen Press Release: March 15, 2004 INITIAL COMMENTS OF PUBLIC CITIZEN'S
CRITICAL MASS ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
To read the comments Public Citizen submitted today to the EPA, please
visit http://www.citizen.org/documents/epalowlevel.pdf Click on the green link above and read the article on the EPA's Proposal to Dump Nuclear Waste into Community Landfills. Respond the short answer question below in the text box provided.1. List three things that make the EPA's attempt to put radioactive wastes in nonlicensed dumps a bad idea.
The waste products that result from generating nuclear power are materials that not only have incredibly long half-lives, but produce radiation levels that are perceived as unsafe for humans. The battle between the need for energy on our planet and the dangers of the by-products has been raging for years. As the above document expresses the attempts to dispose of nuclear wastes are a constant concern of the EPA, the nuclear industry and citizen groups.
This WebQuest will investigate the question, "Is nuclear waste an environmental health hazard?". In this and other the Web pages to follow, you will be challenged to evaluate data, and arguments, that attempt to explain the nature of nuclear waste.
Study this information closely and prepare yourself to render a persuasive essay, pro or con, that summarizes your thoughts on nuclear waste as an environmental health hazard.
You are about to begin an Envirohealth WebQuest. Instructions will appear in red. Information and any questions to be answered will be in black. Read the directions carefully before going to any sites. Use the questions as objectives to direct your reading of any pages. Toggle back and forth between the specified sites and these pages. Your instructor will explain to you how they wish your data displayed for grading.Let's begin! Read the information below to see some of the nuclear issues outlined before we begin our WebQuest. The green heading above each section will take you to a reference site.
Any waste that results from using radioactive materials for purposes that include electricity production by nuclear power plants, defense activities and nuclear weapons manufacture, medical treatment, nuclear research, industrial processes, and mining and milling of uranium ore.-from Energy Education: Concepts and Practices Environmental Impact of Nuclear Reactors
Waste disposal is the problem. Only one country has come up with a sort of solution of what to do with hot fissionable material. This stuff may remain unstable and lethal for 100,000 years.Click The French Fix and read the newspaper article. Respond to the question below.
2. Briefly describe the reprocessing procedures used by the French. Why isn't the U.S. using this procedure to recycle their nuclear waste? Does this procedure appear to be a viable way to deal with nuclear waste? Do you think our government should develop a nuclear waste reprocessing program? Explain.
Nuclear waste is currently stored in holding pools and casks alongside the power plants. According to Jim Lake, a nuclear engineer, writing in The Washington Post:
"The long-term U.S. government plan is to find and license a national underground repository. The Department of Energy has spent nearly $6 billion to research and test a deep geological site in the remote desert at Yucca Mountain, Nevada."Click Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management and read the Welcome page article. Then click Overview and read the text. Respond to the questions below.
3. What is the function of the Office of Civilian Waste Management? What programs does the OCRWM operate?
Now, lets examine an actual nuclear waste situation. Along with the wastes from nuclear plants are wastes from nuclear bomb facilities. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation was built in the 1940s to make nuclear-bomb-grade plutonium. Click Special Report and read about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. On this page are links to other nuclear sites:
• Rocky Flats• Idaho
Read about these other sites and respond to the statement below.
4. Summarize the environmental conditions at the listed nuclear sites.
Let's focus on the Hanford site. Click Nuclear Waste Crisis and read the newspaper article. Though this article was written in 1998, very little has changed. The predictions about the Government's attempts to change law in order to cover their inability to handle the nuclear problem have occurred.
The radioactive material is first "vitrified," or converted into solid glass and then buried in the Yucca salt deposits.
Click Vitrification: How Nuclear Waste is Turned Into Glass and read the newspaper page article. Click each of the illustrations provided and see how the process of vitrification is done and then respond to the statement below.
-Steps 1- 45. Summarize how the vitrification process is done.
The Economist has an opinion about the Yucca plan:
"To bury it in a big hole in the ground, and pray that some future generation may discover how to make it safe, is simply passing the buck."Click Into the Rabbit Hole and read this article that offers a different look at the Yucca Mountain storage site.
6. List two problems that the article addresses concerning the Yucca Mountain site. Explain the details of any one of the two problems.
Now, compose an essay to explain your position, pro or con, by answering the question asked at the beginning of this WebQuest.
Is Nuclear Waste an Environmental Health Hazard? Support your position and choices with the facts presented in this presentation.
Open your word processing application and create your essay. Your instructor will explain the format. Good luck!
