Emphasizing the importance of geology in waste mangement, this text provides students with an understanding of the principles of hazardous waste management, integrating key concepts from geology and geotechnics throughout.

Geologic Aspects of Hazardous Waste Management brings together technical, legislative, regulatory, and business aspects of hazardous waste issues as they pertain to preventing, assessing, containing, and remediating soil and groundwater contamination. The book emphasizes how subsurface geologic and hydrogeologic conditions affect the decision-making process, and it focuses on critical issues facing industry, government, and the public. The book is excellent for consultants, project managers, regulators, geologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, hydrogeologists, risk assessors, environmental engineers, chemists, toxicologists, and environmental lawyers.

The perception of radioactive waste as a major problem for the industrial world has developed only recently. Four decades ago the disposal of such waste was regarded as a relatively minor matter. Those were the heady days when nuclear fission seemed the answer to the world's energy needs: the two wartime bombs had demonstrated its awesome power, and now it was to be harnessed for the production of electricity, the excavation of canals, even the running of cars and airplanes. In all applications of fission some waste containing radioactive elements would be generated of course, but it seemed only a trivial annoyance, a problem whose solution could be deferred until the more exciting challenges of constructing reactors and devising more efficient weapons had been mastered. So waste accumulated, some in tanks and some buried in shallow trenches. These were recognized as only temporary, makeshift measures, because it was known that the debris would be hazardous to its surroundings for many thousands of years and hence that more permanent disposal would someday be needed. The difficulty of accomplishing this more lasting disposal only gradually became apparent. The difficulty has been compounded by uncertainty about the physiological effects oflow-Ievel radiation, by the inadequacy of detailed knowledge about the behavior of engineered and geologic materials over long periods under unusual conditions, and by the sensitization of popular fears about radiation in all its forms following widely publicized reactor accidents and leaks from waste storage sites.

The aim of the book is to equip the student and practicing engineer with the basic knowledge needed for the geotechnical design of waste facilities, the colsure and inprovement of waste facilities, and construction on waste.

Focused attention by world leaders is needed to address the substantial challenges posed by disposal of spent nuclear fuel from reactors and high-level radioactive waste from processing such fuel. The biggest challenges in achieving safe and secure storage and permanent waste disposal are societal, although technical challenges remain. Disposition of radioactive wastes in a deep geological repository is a sound approach as long as it progresses through a stepwise decision-making process that takes advantage of technical advances, public participation, and international cooperation. Written for concerned citizens as well as policymakers, this book was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and waste management organizations in eight other countries.

First published in 1994, as part of the AAAS Selected Symposia Series. National strategies to minimize pollution, including that from hazardous waste, are evolving in both the United States and Canada. Recent federal hazardous waste regulations in the United States, promulgated under the authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), encourage the states to develop their own waste management programs, patterned after federal specifications; some states have developed progressive options. Canadian hazardous waste management programs originate in the provinces. However, the federal government is increasingly involved in developing new treatment technologies, guidelines for consistent management, and control of waste across political boundaries. The authors of this volume find that disposal is still the most common practice for handling hazardous waste in both countries, despite the potential for alternative methods such as industrial process redesign for waste reduction, waste detoxification, recycling, or incineration. Nonetheless, some waste will remain. Sound disposal site selection criteria are prerequisite for industry and government credibility in site selection. Only after accountability is established and recognized will the public lose symptoms of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome. Even so, public involvement in site selection in these countries should be expected for a site to be accepted. All the while, the three parties— industry, government, and the public— must balance the risk of potential waste hazards with the cost of avoiding adverse effects.