NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL AND
STORAGE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Henri
Ayres
Spring
2015
The
Introduction:
Your
class is working for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of
Energy to determine the best way to store nuclear wastes from all of the power
plants, weapons facilities and research institutions in the United States. Exposure to radiation or radiological
materials can cause disease, death, and inheritable genetic mutations to humans
and other plants and animals. Concerns about storing nuclear wastes are:
minimizing radiation exposure to the environment, securing the most highly
radioactive waste for a considerably long period of time, exposure of the
storage containers and wastes to changes in the environment such as earthquakes
and flooding, securing and labeling the site so that future generations of
humans are aware of what the site contains, safety of moving the wastes
throughout the country, and most recently the increased concern of terrorist
activity. This requires a new assessment of nuclear storage.
Your
group has been selected by a joint taskforce of the EPA and DoE
to produce recommendations to address these concerns and provide secure nuclear
waste storage for our country.
The Task:
Use
the steps of the “Public Policy Analysis” to create a PowerPoint Presentation(PPT) to show to the EPA and DOE on how you have developed a new policy for
nuclear waste disposal with regard to increased public safety. One group will
work on a policy where wastes are stored at a single facility. The other group
will develop a policy where wastes are stored at the point of production. A
third group will develop a policy that is based on a few regional storage
facilities. Each group will evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of their
policy.
The Process:
Use
the six steps of the PPA
1)
Each group will
define the problem (How to store nuclear waste to minimize threats to public
safety from accidents, environmental changes, and threats of terrorism.
2)
Each group will
gather evidence of problems and benefits of current storage techniques and
evaluate them with regard to their groups’ storage location(s).
3)
The product will
identify the causes of the location problem.
4)
The groups will
evaluate current policy with regard to safe storage of nuclear waste.
5)
Each group will
develop at least two solutions.
6)
Each group will
select the best solution based on feasibility and effectiveness.
Use the worksheets that are provided to complete each
task.
The Resources: Please cite all sources that you use.
1) NRC: Radioactive Waste: Production,
Storage, Disposal...
2) Storage and Disposal Options
The
Evaluation:
The
Conclusion:
The
students have researched and evaluated the needs of our country for storage of nuclear
wastes. They have proposed policy changes that address the concerns of diverse
groups of citizens and leaders for the safest methods of transport and storage
of nuclear wastes.
CC Standards:
NYS
PS Chemistry Standards:
Std 2 key idea 1
Std 7 Key Ideas 1.1, 1.3, 2, 4.4
Common Core standards X.4, X.6, X.10
ELA
Science :