Risk and Decisions About Disposition of Transuranic and High-Level Radioactive Waste (2005) / Chapter Skim
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6 Findings and Recommendations
6 Findings and Recommendations
Pages 139-148
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From page 139... ...
Deep geologic disposal remains the nation's approach for disposal of TRU and HLW. Finding 2: Some waste currently classified as TRU or HLW may not warrant disposal in a deep geologic repository, either because (1)
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From page 140... ...
Litigation over authority and agreements about waste disposition has left DOE's waste disposition program with substantial uncertainty concerning the path forward. Given the various disputes and the reality that not all of the waste will or can be recovered and disposed of in a deep geologic repository, an acceptable exemption process is needed.
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From page 141... ...
risk analysis is a powerful, structured, welldeveloped way of considering human health effects, and its strengths and weaknesses are well established. This report focuses on human health risk because it is of concern for all of the waste streams and because it has traditionally been studied in risk analysis.
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From page 142... ...
Having DOE's application for exemption subject to the judgment of an independent arbiter would make the process more credible to skeptics, of which, in this area, there are many. Therefore, the burden of proof implies, and the committee here makes it explicit, that a separate federal entity is needed as the regulatory decision maker for exemption purposes.
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From page 143... ...
Likewise, the exemption process that the committee recommends must be implemented in the context of DOE's existing or renegotiated compliance agreements. Put another way, if DOE wants to renegotiate its compliance agreements, it must make a case for renegotiation that is informed by risk, sets out clear criteria for an exemption, comprehensively addresses health risks (including worker, transportation, and long-term risk)
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From page 144... ...
For example, a technically credible risk-based approach that lacks participation or transparency would likely not be trusted and, therefore, would likely be ineffective in supporting a waste exemption process. In summary, Findings 7 and 8 describe the key elements of a riskinformed approach as being a well-structured, participatory, and transparent process with an independent decision maker that uses current scientific knowledge and practice to address human health risk but also takes into account other impacts to reach a decision.
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From page 145... ...
Specifically, they should provide for a formal, well-structured exemption process, institute technical review of the risk analysis independent of the agency producing the analysis, give decisionmaking authority to an agency outside DOE, and ensure that sufficient resources are reliably available for regulators, American Indian nations, and stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the process from the outset. The committee did not develop detailed actions for each entity/agency for the steps necessary to implement this recommendation.
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From page 146... ...
The complex analyses were not decision oriented and were not carried out in a transparent manner needed for meaningful participation by those outside DOE. The actions supporting regulatory decisions in many cases also were lacking -- the steps in the processes appeared to have been performed simply to meet procedural requirements and most did not appear to have taken the kind of cooperative approach that the committee sees as essential to reach credible decisions and to foster buy-in by other relevant parties.
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From page 147... ...
Recommendation 5: To address the challenges of implementation and acceptance, DOE should form an authoritative, credible, and reasonably independent group to revamp the way DOE goes about implementing risk-informed approaches applied to waste disposition decisions. These are enormously complex problems with numerous parties involved and a great deal of institutional inertia (as evidenced by unsuccessful previous attempts to change)
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