Opportunities for Environmental Protection

Session Chair: Anthony E. Hechanova, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
Session Co-Chair: Kanthi K. Dasika, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
Keynote Speaker: Kazuo Shimomura, Nuclear Energy Agency, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,

Do you feel that sufficient breadth has been covered on this area within the session?

The session covered two basic areas, that of radioactive waste management and that of aspects of environmental protection, which included regulatory standards and monitoring.аThe former having the stronger showing in terms of papers.

Had there been more balance in the paper submissions the session could have been divided into two areas:аradioactive waste management and environmental monitoring and protection as the applications of the two are sufficiently different to present separately.а

Are there any areas you would have liked covered that are missing?

Environmental remediation is one growth area that would have been ideally suited to presentation within this section and should be strongly promoted at the next IYNC. Perhaps this could be combined with presenters who had knowledge of working sites that had used such techniques.

Are there any issues that the audience felt strongly about and if so why?

The broad nature of the topic meant that no central theme could be assigned to it. The technical content of the session was quite good, and the nature of the audiencesТ interest was shown in the varied and diverse questions.

Are there any learning points we could take away for future presentations of this subject or for the conference sessions in general?

The main recommendation is to divide the session into two areas (radioactive waste management and environmental monitoring and protection) and encourage nuclear scientists and engineers who may not have an expertise in these areas to remain informed on these important areas as this knowledge is often needed when interacting with the public.аThe importance of knowing what is going on in different countries and learning the broad breadth of nuclear technology was discussed.

What degree of control is placed on environmental protection in the global community?

The Y-Note session group felt that global control was acted out only by global discussion.аEach country was freely able to determine their level of protection from nuclear power plants, weapons complex past and present activities, and nuclear medicine and it was expected that they would be responsible enough to harmonise the protection of the global environment

Where does the audience feel more work is required in the area of waste minimization and environmental protection?

The group at the Y-Notes session felt that more work is required on improving the laws governing environmental protection and waste management that include new information on health physics. Further work onаwaste form optimization and inventory and volume reduction through separations and concentration will assist in reducing waste repository volumes and include cleanup of special cases which could also lead to establishment of a position of uniformity and concensus on this subject.