Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Chemical accidents involving ammonium nitrate are rare, but have the potential for significant property destruction, injury and death. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) all have regulations in place, they apparently are not adequate to prevent accidents or ensure emergency response is prepared. […]
What we know about ammonium nitrate is that it is commonly used both for fertilizer in agriculture and for explosives in mining and other industries, and that significant quantities of the chemical are stored throughout the country. What we do not know is exactly how much ammonium nitrate is in storage and where this storage […]
By law the U.S. DOE was required to develop a permanent geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and begin accepting waste for disposal on January 31, 1998. But after decades of investigations, design, engineering, and testing at a cost of $14 billion, the Yucca Mountain option appears to have died under overwhelming negative response from […]
Although these options have worthwhile aspects in terms of safety and practicality, each is very expensive and has contamination and exposure risks over both the short and long term. Not to mention, the American public is adamant in rejecting any proposal that places nuclear waste near communities either via transportation or storage. In November 2009, […]
On-Site Storage On-site storage continues the status quo for isolating nuclear waste from the public and the environment. While electric power companies clearly oppose the continuation of on-site storage, which is costly and resource intensive, there are several real advantages. First, companies are able to closely monitor stored waste and provide security. Second, the waste […]
Centralized storage sites would be used to consolidate nuclear waste that would be transported from the 121 facilities generating the waste for which DOE is responsible. The primary advantage of centralized storage is that it would allow DOE to take possession of the waste and terminate or at least, truncate the lawsuits the department is […]