Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Oversight and InvestigationsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear facilities
Languages : en
Pages : 600
Book Description
Safety at DOE Nuclear Weapons Facilities
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Oversight and InvestigationsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear facilities
Languages : en
Pages : 600
Book Description
Safeguards at DOE's Nuclear Weapons Facilities
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Oversight and InvestigationsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear facilities
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Health and Safety at the Department of Energy's Nuclear Weapons Facilities
Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Governmental investigations
Languages : en
Pages : 22
Book Description
Review of the Department of Labor's Site Exposure Matrix Database
Author: Committee on the Review of the Department of Labor's Site Exposure Matrix (SEM) DatabasePublisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309268702
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 135
Book Description
Beginning with the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, the United States continued to build nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. Thousands of people mined and milled uranium, conducted research on nuclear warfare, or worked in nuclear munitions factories around the country from the 1940s through the 1980s. Such work continues today, albeit to a smaller extent. The Department of Energy (DOE) is now responsible for overseeing those sites and facilities, many of which were, and continue to be, run by government contractors. The materials used at those sites were varied and ranged from the benign to the toxic and highly radioactive. Workers at DOE facilities often did not know the identity of the materials with which they worked and often were unaware of health risks related to their use. In many instances, the work was considered top secret, and employees were cautioned not to reveal any work-related information to family or others. Workers could be exposed to both radioactive and nonradioactive toxic substances for weeks or even years. Consequently, some of the workers have developed health problems and continue to have concerns about potential health effects of their exposures to occupational hazards during their employment in the nuclear weapons industry. In response to the concerns expressed by workers and their representatives, DOL asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to review the SEM database and its use of a particular database, Haz-Map, as the source of its toxic substance-occupational disease links. Accordingly, this IOM consensus report reflects careful consideration of its charge by the committee, and describes the strengths and shortcomings of both. To complete its task, IOM formed an ad hoc committee of experts in occupational medicine, toxicology, epidemiology, industrial hygiene, public health, and biostatistics to conduct an 18-month study to review the scientific rigor of the SEM database. The committee held two public meetings at which it heard from DOL Division of Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation (DEEOIC) representatives, the DOL contractor that developed the SEM database, the developer of the Haz-Map database, DOE worker advocacy groups, and several individual workers. The committee also submitted written questions to DOL to seek clarification of specific issues and received written responses from DEEOIC. The committee's report considers both the strengths and weaknesses of the SEM and the Haz-Map databases, recognizing that the latter was developed first and for a different purpose. The committee then discusses its findings and recommends improvements that could be made in both databases with a focus on enhancing the usability of SEM for both DOL claims examiners and for former DOE workers and their representatives. Review of the Department of Labor's Site Exposure Matrix Database summarizes the committee's findings.
Effects of Nuclear Earth-Penetrator and Other Weapons
Author: National Research CouncilPublisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309096731
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
Underground facilities are used extensively by many nations to conceal and protect strategic military functions and weapons' stockpiles. Because of their depth and hardened status, however, many of these strategic hard and deeply buried targets could only be put at risk by conventional or nuclear earth penetrating weapons (EPW). Recently, an engineering feasibility study, the robust nuclear earth penetrator program, was started by DOE and DOD to determine if a more effective EPW could be designed using major components of existing nuclear weapons. This activity has created some controversy about, among other things, the level of collateral damage that would ensue if such a weapon were used. To help clarify this issue, the Congress, in P.L. 107-314, directed the Secretary of Defense to request from the NRC a study of the anticipated health and environmental effects of nuclear earth-penetrators and other weapons and the effect of both conventional and nuclear weapons against the storage of biological and chemical weapons. This report provides the results of those analyses. Based on detailed numerical calculations, the report presents a series of findings comparing the effectiveness and expected collateral damage of nuclear EPW and surface nuclear weapons under a variety of conditions.
Atomic Audit
Author: Stephen I. SchwartzPublisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815722946
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 750
Book Description
Since 1945, the United States has manufactured and deployed more than 70,000 nuclear weapons to deter and if necessary fight a nuclear war. Some observers believe the absence of a third world war confirms that these weapons were a prudent and cost-effective response to the uncertainty and fear surrounding the Soviet Union's military and political ambitions during the cold war. As early as 1950, nuclear weapons were considered relatively inexpensive— providing "a bigger bang for a buck"—and were thoroughly integrated into U.S. forces on that basis. Yet this assumption was never validated. Indeed, for more than fifty years scant attention has been paid to the enormous costs of this effort—more than $5 trillion thus far—and its short and long-term consequences for the nation. Based on four years of extensive research, Atomic Audit is the first book to document the comprehensive costs of U.S. nuclear weapons, assembling for the first time anywhere the actual and estimated expenditures for the program since its creation in 1940. The authors provide a unique perspective on U.S. nuclear policy and nuclear weapons, tracking their development from the Manhattan Project of World War II to the present day and assessing each aspect of the program, including research, development, testing, and production; deployment; command, control, communications, and intelligence; and defensive measures. They also examine the costs of dismantling nuclear weapons, the management and disposal of large quantities of toxic and radioactive wastes left over from their production, compensation for persons harmed by nuclear weapons activities, nuclear secrecy, and the economic implications of nuclear deterrence. Utilizing archival and newly declassified government documents and data, this richly documented book demonstrates how a variety of factors—the open-ended nature of nuclear deterrence, faulty assumptions about the cost-effectiveness of nuclear weapons, regular misrepresentati
Nuclear Criticality Safety
Author: Ronald Allen KniefPublisher: American Nuclear Society
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Nuclear criticality safety is the prevention of nuclear chain reactions in fissile materials outside of reactors. This book presents the underlying principles of nuclear criticality safety theory along with descriptions of the principal methods currently used and their in-plant applications. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter to increase understanding of the text.
Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and MedicinePublisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309498619
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued an Interim Report evaluating the general viability of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration's (DOE-NNSA's) conceptual plans for disposing of 34 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a deep geologic repository near Carlsbad, New Mexico. It provided a preliminary assessment of the general viability of DOE-NNSA's conceptual plans, focused on some of the barriers to their implementation. This final report addresses the remaining issues and echoes the recommendations from the interim study.
Security of U.S. Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Weapons Facilities
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services. Subcommittee on StrategicPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : National security
Languages : en
Pages : 32
Book Description
Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 1999: Department of Energy, Environmental management and commercial waste management
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water DevelopmentPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Energy development
Languages : en
Pages : 1228
Book Description