In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, the vulnerability of the water cycle to radionuclide contamination has been an issue of great concern. The impact of the event throughout Europe has been highly variable and wide-ranging, and has demonstrated the need to evaluate the potential risk to drinking water supplies, soil water and the food chain. This book provides information on radiological standards as they exist at present, on the methods of monitoring, and on concepts in design to minimize risk and to highlight the possible consequences of a nuclear event.
The most recent volume in the Drinking Water and Health series contains the results of a two-part study on the toxicity of drinking water contaminants. The first part examines current practices in risk assessment, identifies new noncancerous toxic responses to chemicals found in drinking water, and discusses the use of pharmacokinetic data to estimate the delivered dose and response. The second part of the book provides risk assessments for 14 specific compounds, 9 presented here for the first time.
This report is a collection of three separate papers dealing with 'Water Resource Applications of Plowshare in the United States', 'Underground Storage of Natural Gas in Nuclear Cavities', and 'Waste Disposal'. The first of the papers was written by Gerald D. Cohen; the latter two by Francis M. Sand. During the writing of these reports a variety of difficulties were encountered in the economic evaluation of each of these peaceful applications of nuclear explosives among them difficulties in projecting potential demand for these processes, uncertainties regarding technical questions due to the lack of nuclear experiments in all three cases, and as a consequence quite some uncertainty must also be attached to the economic benefits and costs of these processes. The main results of the three reports are: In the case of Water Resource Applications within the United States, we concluded that on a national scale the United States is endowed with ample water resources. Only in selected regional situations water shortages appear imminent as the population increases. Extending present trends in water consumption and management, by the end of this century 22 river basins in the United States may not have local supplies of water sufficient to support further development. Four different approaches to solve this problem were proposed, and in each of them, nuclear explosives could be used at some stage: (1) Increase the storage capacity of water on or beneath the land surface. Such storage space could be created either by throwout and subsidence craters or by nuclear chimneys deep underground. The cost of crater reservoirs appears to be within feasible range. The main advantage of using nuclear chimneys for water storage is that they are not subject to the heavy evaporation losses of surface reservoirs.
Naturally occurring radionuclides are found throughout the earth's crust, and they form part of the natural background of radiation to which all humans are exposed. Many human activities-such as mining and milling of ores, extraction of petroleum products, use of groundwater for domestic purposes, and living in houses-alter the natural background of radiation either by moving naturally occurring radionuclides from inaccessible locations to locations where humans are present or by concentrating the radionuclides in the exposure environment. Such alterations of the natural environment can increase, sometimes substantially, radiation exposures of the public. Exposures of the public to naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that result from human activities that alter the natural environment can be subjected to regulatory control, at least to some degree. The regulation of public exposures to such technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory and advisory organizations is the subject of this study by the National Research Council's Committee on the Evaluation of EPA Guidelines for Exposures to Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials.
This book recounts the issues raised and the viewpoints aired at a recent symposium on repository licensing. It summarizes the problems surrounding the setting of an Environmental Protection Agency standard for the release of radionuclides and the regulatory problems inherent in meeting such a standard. Symposium participants came from a variety of federal agencies and advisory groups, state governments, public interest groups, engineering firms, national laboratories, and foreign and international organizations. The book illustrates the strong feeling in the radioactive waste disposal community that changes must be made if the United States is to fulfill its promise of safe management of current and future nuclear waste.
In the late 1980s, the National Cancer Institute initiated an investigation of cancer risks in populations near 52 commercial nuclear power plants and 10 Department of Energy nuclear facilities (including research and nuclear weapons production facilities and one reprocessing plant) in the United States. The results of the NCI investigation were used a primary resource for communicating with the public about the cancer risks near the nuclear facilities. However, this study is now over 20 years old. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requested that the National Academy of Sciences provide an updated assessment of cancer risks in populations near USNRC-licensed nuclear facilities that utilize or process uranium for the production of electricity. Analysis of Cancer Risks in Populations near Nuclear Facilities: Phase 1 focuses on identifying scientifically sound approaches for carrying out an assessment of cancer risks associated with living near a nuclear facility, judgments about the strengths and weaknesses of various statistical power, ability to assess potential confounding factors, possible biases, and required effort. The results from this Phase 1 study will be used to inform the design of cancer risk assessment, which will be carried out in Phase 2. This report is beneficial for the general public, communities near nuclear facilities, stakeholders, healthcare providers, policy makers, state and local officials, community leaders, and the media.
