ment at the site during the Second World War to the 1980s when nuclear weapons production ceased and nuclear power development slowed substantially (United States Department of Energy, 1996).
The movement of the spent nuclear fuels from the K Basins site to the interim storage site on the Hanford Reservation is not the focus of this proposal. The movement of the spent nuclear fuels to the interim site on the Hanford Reservation is almost complete. Rather, the focus of this proposal is the assessment of the risks associated with the long-term objective of the project is to remediate the deteriorating spent nuclear fuel (initially stored underwater in the K-Basins at the Hanford Reservation, and now, for the most part, stored in safer interim facilities on the Hanford Reservation) on a permanent basis by transferring the spent fuels to a permanent storage that will be located either (a) on the Hanford Reservation or (b) at a site located in the State of Nevada.
The decision framework in the proposed risk assessment of the alternative approaches to provide for the permanent remediation of spent nuclear fuels at the Hanford Reservation will be applied in the comparison stage of the risk assessment. It is in the comparison stage of the risk assessment that the decision recommendation for the selection of one approach for implementation will be made.
Metrics will be developed for each measurable risk factor in each of the risk groups that are proposed for assessment. The risk groups proposed for assessment are as follows:
Human health risks associated with the potential failure of storage facilities over the short-term (up to five years)
Human health risks associated with the potential failure of storage facilities over the long-term (five-years to 100 years)
Human health risks associated with the transportation of spent nuclear fuel from interim storage to permanent storage
Animal health risks associated with the p...