Improving the Regulation and Management of Low-Activity Radioactive Wastes (2006) / Chapter Skim
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5 Findings and Recommendations
5 Findings and Recommendations
Pages 89-96
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From page 89... ...
The initiatives, which were described in Chapter 2, would increase the flexibility and number of disposal options for very low activity wastes while imposing or maintaining consistent controls on more hazardous and concentrated materials. The committee concluded that while there are no easy solutions, it is possible to move in incremental steps toward a more risk-informed system for controlling management and disposition of radioactive materials.
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From page 90... ...
Recommendation 1 The committee recommends that low-activity waste regulators implement risk-informed regulation of LAW through integrated strategies1 developed by the regulatory agencies. Improving the system will require continued integration and coordination among regulatory agencies including the USNRC, EPA, the Department of Energy (DOE)
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From page 91... ...
While it is beyond the committee's task to prescribe how regulatory agencies should do their work, the committee judges that coordinated leadership by federal agencies will be essential -- for example, by following the model of a federal committee such as ISCORS or a similar interagency group to further identify and prioritize risk-informed improvements in regulating LAW. Developing and instituting implementation strategies may require several years, as did the work on MARSSIM.
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From page 92... ...
Recommendation 2 The committee recommends that regulatory agencies adopt a risk informed LAW system in incremental steps, relying mainly on their existing authorities under current statutes and using a four-tiered approach: (1) changes to specific facility licenses or permits and individual licensee decisions; (2)
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From page 93... ...
Recommendation 3 The committee recommends that government agencies continue to explore ways to improve their efforts to gather knowledge and opinions from stakeholders, particularly the affected and interested publics, when making LAW risk management decisions. Public stakeholders play a central role in a risk-informed decision process.
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From page 94... ...
Besides outreach, another way a few government organizations in Europe and the United States have helped public stakeholders become more central in risk decision-making processes is by helping them hire their own technical experts. While agencies with responsibility for LAW in the United States have improved their efforts to involve stakeholders and the public in waste disposal decisions, many citizens continue to perceive those efforts as falling short of their intended goals.
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From page 95... ...
For very low radioactive material concentrations, EC regulations and IAEA standards provide guidelines for wastes that pose insignificant risks to be cleared or exempted from control as radioactive material. At the high end, wastes with properties similar to wastes from nuclear fuel reprocessing are classified as "high-level wastes." In the U.S.
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From page 96... ...
96 LOW-ACTIVITY RADIOACTIVE WASTES If waste management technical experts and regulators develop broad agreement, members of different publics might be more trusting of their ability to ensure safe management and disposal practices. Moving toward risk-informed practices in the United States would be consistent with many international initiatives and could have the net effect of increasing stakeholder support in all countries.
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