The Dilemma of Siting a High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository

The Dilemma of Siting a High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository PDF Author: D. Easterling
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401106290
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This book explores siting dilemmas - situations in which an "authority" (e.g., Congress, a consortium of utilities) deems it in the best interest of society to build a facility such as an incinerator, but opponents living near the proposed site thwart the plan. Facility developers typically attribute local opposition to selfishness or radically inaccurate views of the risks posed by the facility. We examine the validity of these conclusions by looking in depth at the psychological response that arises when residents are faced with the prospect of living near waste disposal facilities. The particular siting dilemma considered in this book is the problem of how to "dispose" of the high-level nuclear wastes accumulating at nuclear power plants in the United States. These wastes, in the form of "spent" fuel rods, will emit dangerous levels of radioactivity for thousands of years - anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 years, depending on the margin of safety one adopts. The current proposal is to encase the spent fuel in corrosion-resistant canisters and then to bury these canisters deep underground in a geologic repository. The two of us became involved with the high-level waste issue in 1986 as part of an interdisciplinary research team hired by the State of Nevada. The charge of this team was to estimate the socioeconomic impacts that would accompany a repository if it were built at Yucca Mountain, approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Dilemma of Siting a High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository

The Dilemma of Siting a High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository PDF Author: D. Easterling
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401106290
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores siting dilemmas - situations in which an "authority" (e.g., Congress, a consortium of utilities) deems it in the best interest of society to build a facility such as an incinerator, but opponents living near the proposed site thwart the plan. Facility developers typically attribute local opposition to selfishness or radically inaccurate views of the risks posed by the facility. We examine the validity of these conclusions by looking in depth at the psychological response that arises when residents are faced with the prospect of living near waste disposal facilities. The particular siting dilemma considered in this book is the problem of how to "dispose" of the high-level nuclear wastes accumulating at nuclear power plants in the United States. These wastes, in the form of "spent" fuel rods, will emit dangerous levels of radioactivity for thousands of years - anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 years, depending on the margin of safety one adopts. The current proposal is to encase the spent fuel in corrosion-resistant canisters and then to bury these canisters deep underground in a geologic repository. The two of us became involved with the high-level waste issue in 1986 as part of an interdisciplinary research team hired by the State of Nevada. The charge of this team was to estimate the socioeconomic impacts that would accompany a repository if it were built at Yucca Mountain, approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Whose Backyard, Whose Risk

Whose Backyard, Whose Risk PDF Author: Michael B. Gerrard
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262571135
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
In Whose Backyard, Whose Risk, environmental lawyer, professor, and commentator Michael B. Gerrard tackles the thorny issue of how and where to dispose of hazardous and radioactive waste. In Whose Backyard, Whose Risk, environmental lawyer, professor, and commentator Michael B. Gerrard tackles the thorny issue of how and where to dispose of hazardous and radioactive waste. Gerrard, who has represented dozens of municipalities and community groups that have fought landfills and incinerators, as well as companies seeking permits, clearly and succinctly analyzes a problem that has generated a tremendous amount of political conflict, emotional anguish, and transaction costs. He proposes a new system of waste disposal that involves local control, state responsibility, and national allocation to deal comprehensively with multiple waste streams. Gerrard draws on the literature of law, economics, political science, and other disciplines to analyze the domestic and international origins of wastes and their disposal patterns. Based on a study of the many failures and few successes of past siting efforts, he identifies the mistaken assumptions and policy blunders that have helped doom siting efforts. Gerrard first describes the different kinds of nonradioactive and radioactive wastes and how each is generated and disposed of. He explains historical and current siting decisions and considers the effects of the current mechanisms for making those decisions (including the hidden economics and psychology of the siting process). A typology of permit rules reveals the divergence between what underlies most siting disputes and what environmental laws actually protect. Gerrard then looks at proposals for dealing with the siting dilemma and examines the successes and failures of each. He outlines a new alternative for facility siting that combines a political solution and a legal framework for implementation. A hypothetical example of how a siting decision might be made in a particular case is presented in an epilogue.

Siting Hazardous Waste Treatment Facilities

Siting Hazardous Waste Treatment Facilities PDF Author: Kent Portney
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Since the 1960s and 70s, a wave of environmental awareness has swept the United States. News reports of oil spills, DDT damage to wildlife, and the nuclear near-disaster at Three Mile Island have, along with other incidents, contributed to a widespread distrust of industry and a collective fear of all chemical processing facilities. This fear has been translated, according to Kent Portney, into local political opposition to the siting of much needed hazardous waste treatment plants--the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome. The failure of federal, state, and local governments to effectively control improper hazardous waste disposal has further strengthened the NIMBY syndrome. Portney argues that once it is understood what motivates the array of local attitudes toward hazardous waste treatment facilities, and the political constraints placed on the search for solutions, effective compromises can be reached. The book begins by focusing on the facility siting dilemma and what can be done to find new policies that work. Chapter two analyzes what does and does not work in easing the effects of the NIMBY syndrome. Democratic political processes are investigated in chapter three, especially those that contribute to the development of NIMBY opposition. Chapters four and five present empirical correlates of changes in peoples' attitudes and explain how people can ultimately be convinced to support local hazardous waste treatment facilities. Social, cultural, and psychological construction of opposition to facility siting is studied in chapter six. Portney presents viable solutions to the facility siting problem, in light of the NIMBY syndrome, in the concluding chapter. This important book will be of great value to practitioners facing actual siting decisions, members of statewide siting boards, private sector parties wishing to site facilities, and those teaching courses in environmental policy or politics.

Facing Segregation

Facing Segregation PDF Author: Molly W. Metzger
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190862300
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Since the passing of the Fair Housing Act, integration by social class has decreased. In Facing Segregation, Metzger and Webber bring together notable scholars to reflect on how to use policy to advance housing justice and show how the power of government can be harnessed to a constructive end.

The Dilemma of Siting a High-level Nuclear Waste Depository

The Dilemma of Siting a High-level Nuclear Waste Depository PDF Author: Douglas Easterling
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Public relations
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the Dilemma of Siting a High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository, the authors examine siting conflicts from a variety of perspectives - political, psychological, and sociological - and identify the fundamental determinants of public opposition to waste-disposal facilities as a means of designing more effective approaches to solving the typical siting dilemma. In assessing the causes of public opposition, the book draws on various surveys of attitudes toward the repository as a function of predictors such as perceptions of risk, benefits and fairness.

Preserving the Future of Long Island Sound

Preserving the Future of Long Island Sound PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization and Government Research
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Long Island Sound (N.Y. and Conn.)
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description


The Law and Economics of the Environment

The Law and Economics of the Environment PDF Author: Anthony Heyes
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781843762935
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
. . . their collection together here represents a valuable addition to the library of those who are concerned with studying, teaching analysing, practicing, or making, environmental law as well as students and practitioners of environmental economics. David Hadley, The Economic Journal The exploration of the basic economics of externalities and the basic common law doctrines and institutions for dealing with externalities constitute a "first generation" of economic analysis of environmental law. The present book of essays illustrates the "second generation" of economic analysis of environmental law. The fundamental economic issues, and the common law, are no longer the focus. The lessons of the "first generation" have been absorbed and transcended. The focus has shifted to the level of application, which is the level at which the economist and the lawyer-economist can best hope to influence policy. We are making progress and the essays in this volume will do much to assure that progress continues. From the foreword by Richard A. Posner, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and University of Chicago Law School, US One of the most exciting and productive areas of research in environmental policy is resulting from the integration of the traditionally separate fields of environmental economics and law and economics. This book brings together the top researchers engaged in this enterprise to share the useful insights that are emerging. Both in terms of the scope of coverage and the depth of analysis this is an absolutely first-rate book. Tom Tietenberg, Colby College, Maine, US This outstanding book focuses on how economics can contribute to the design, implementation and appraisal of legal systems that create the right incentives for environmental protection. The sixteen original and specially commissioned contributions written by some of the leading names in their field span many of the important areas of contemporary interest and employ case study material combined with theoretical, empirical and experimental research. The book addresses many topical issues including: the fundamental notions of property rights and social norms; the design and implementation of civil liability regimes; the use of criminal law as an instrument of environmental policy; the role that citizen suits, self-monitoring and self-enforcement could and should play in the implementation of law; the international harmonisation of environmental law; and the treatment of environmental damages in courts. Cutting-edge economic technique is motivated by, and articulates with, real and pressing policy debates. The contributors refer to a range of legal cases and policy decisions, and draw out a host of policy implications and prescriptions for settings as diverse as Superfund reform in the US and the harmonisation of landfill regulations in the European Union. By combining incisive overviews of the latest thinking and results, complemented by original analysis, The Law and Economics of the Environment will appeal to researchers and students of the environment, law and economics, policy practitioners and those with an interest in knowing what constitutes good environmental law.

Public Involvement In Energy Facility Planning

Public Involvement In Energy Facility Planning PDF Author: Dennis W Ducsik
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000308618
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
Because the power industry is anticipating greatly increased generating capacity requirements in the 1990s, political controversy over electricity demand and supply is likely to return to--and perhaps surpass--the level of rancor experienced during the 1970s. Fortunately, a sizable number of utility companies have come to believe that destructive c

Deep Disposal

Deep Disposal PDF Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228023238
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
Canada is one of many countries around the world that use nuclear reactors to generate electrical power, in part to reduce our carbon footprint. Yet this energy produces hazardous, long-lived waste that emits dangerous radioactivity for tens of thousands of years. Nuclear waste, stored temporarily for decades, must be safely disposed of so it will not pose a serious threat to human health and the environment. This means placing it in locations deep underground in granite, sedimentary rock, or clay. Canada’s ideal location is somewhere on the Canadian Shield, the 2.5-billion-year-old crystalline rock that undergirds much of the country. Beginning in 2010 some twenty-two communities, most in Ontario, volunteered to host the repository. In Deep Disposal William Leiss explains the challenges that have arisen in the evaluation of potential sites over the last decade. High-level nuclear waste is the most hazardous byproduct of an energy source that is incredibly useful and increasingly in demand. Finding the ideal place to store it permanently is an urgent policy crisis facing our country. Deep Disposal reveals the nature of this crisis and how we might overcome it.

Democratic Dilemmas in the Age of Ecology

Democratic Dilemmas in the Age of Ecology PDF Author: Daniel Press
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Environmental problems present democratic dilemmas. The problems are so large and so often pit localities and interest groups against each other that they challenge basic democratic institutions, particularly the ideal of citizen participation in society's choices. In this book, Daniel Press examines the conflict between environmental political thought and democratic theory and asks whether successful environmental protection is beyond the capabilities of democratic decisionmaking. Press introduces the primary debate in this confrontation as a choice between political centralization and decentralization. Do citizens faced with environmental crises tend to look first to a centralized leadership for solutions or do they tend to respond at a more local and grassroots level? What is the role of technical expertise in this process and how does it effect public participation in these matters? Do confrontations over environmental issues increase support for a more fully democratic decisionmaking process? Representing social, political, and economic challenges to democracy, these and other questions are then investigated empirically through analyses of case studies. Focusing on two recent controversies in the western United States, ancient-forest logging in Oregon and California and hazardous waste management in California, and drawing on in-depth interviews with individuals involved, Press clarifies the relationship between environmentalism and democracy and explores the characteristics of "new" democratic forms of environmental policymaking. Revealing a need for a more decentralized process and increased individual and collective action in response to environmental crises, Democratic Dilemmas in the Age of Ecology will be of interest to a wide range of audiences, from scholars concerned with applications of democratic theory, to activists and policymakers seeking to change or implement environmental policy.