综合类职称英语强化
Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive Waste
The withdrawal of Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste
repository1 has reopened the debate over how and where to dispose of spent
nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. In an article in the July 10 issue of
Science, University of Michigan2 geologist Rodney Ewing and Princeton
University3 nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel argue that, although federal
agencies should set standards and issue licenses for the approval of nuclear
facilities, local communities and states should have the final approval on the
siting of these facilities. The authors propose the development of multiple
sites that would service the regions where nuclear reactors are located.
"The main goal…, should be to provide the Unied States with multiple process
that requires acceptance by host communities and states," the authors write.
Ewing and yon Hippel also analyze the reasons why Yucca Mountain, selected by
Congress4 in 1987 as the only site to be investigated for long-term nuclear
waste disposal, finally was shelved5 after more than three decades of often
controversial debate. The reasons include the site's geological problems,
management problems, important changes in the Environmental Protection Agency's
standard, unreliable funding and the failure to involve local communities in the
decision-making process.
Going forward, efforts should be directed at locating storage facilities in the
nation's northeastern, southeastern, midwestern and western regions, and states
within a given region should be responsible for developing solutions that suit
their particular circumstances. Transportation of nuclear waste over long
distances, which was a concern with the Yucca Mountain site, would be less of a
problem because temporary storage or geological disposal sites could be located
closer to reactors.
"This regional approach would be similar to the current approach in Europe,
where spent nuclear fuel6 and high-level nuclear waste7 from about 150 reactors
and reprocessing plants is to be moved to a number of geological repositories in
a variety of rock types8," said Rodney Ewing, who has written extensively about
the impact of nuclear waste management on the environment and who has analyzed
safety assessment criteria for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
repository.
词汇：
radioactive adj.放射性的 shelve v.搁置 repository n.储藏地，储藏室 controversial
adj.有争议的
geologist n.地质学家 reactor n.反应堆，反应器 geological adj.地质的
注释：