Division of Life Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8082, USA.
Environ Monit Assess. 2011 Jan;172(1-4):121-34. doi: 10.1007/s10661-010-1321-y. Epub 2010 Feb 6.
The USA is entering an era of energy diversity, and increasing nuclear capacity and concerns focus on accidents, security, waste, and pollution. Physical buffers that separate outsiders from nuclear facilities often support important natural ecosystems but may contain contaminants. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licenses nuclear reactors; the applicant provides environmental assessments that serve as the basis for Environmental Impact Statements developed by NRC. We provide a template for the types of information needed for safe siting of nuclear facilities with buffers in three categories: ecological, fate and transport, and human health information that can be used for risk evaluations. Each item on the lists is an indicator for evaluation, and individual indicators can be selected for specific region. Ecological information needs include biodiversity (species, populations, communities) and structure and functioning of ecosystems, habitats, and landscapes, in addition to common, abundant, and unique species and endangered and rare ones. The key variables of fate and transport are sources of release for radionuclides and other chemicals, nature of releases (atmospheric vapors, subsurface liquids), features, and properties of environmental media (wind speed, direction and atmospheric stability, hydraulic gradient, hydraulic conductivity, groundwater chemistry). Human health aspects include receptor populations (demography, density, dispersion, and distance), potential pathways (drinking water sources, gardening, fishing), and exposure opportunities (lifestyle activities). For each of the three types of information needs, we expect that only a few of the indicators will be applicable to a particular site and that stakeholders should agree on a site-specific suite.
美国正在进入一个能源多样化的时代，核能的容量不断增加，人们越来越关注事故、安全、废物和污染问题。将外部人员与核设施隔离开来的物理缓冲区通常支持着重要的自然生态系统，但可能含有污染物。美国核管理委员会（NRC）负责核反应堆的许可；申请人提供环境评估，作为 NRC 制定环境影响声明的基础。我们提供了一个模板，用于确定具有缓冲区的核设施的安全选址所需的信息类型，分为生态、命运和传输以及人类健康信息三个类别，这些信息可用于风险评估。列表中的每个项目都是评估的指标，并且可以根据特定区域选择个别指标。生态信息需求包括生物多样性（物种、种群、群落）以及生态系统、栖息地和景观的结构和功能，以及常见、丰富和独特的物种以及濒危和稀有的物种。命运和传输的关键变量是释放放射性核素和其他化学物质的来源，释放的性质（大气蒸气、地下液体），环境介质的特征和特性（风速、方向和大气稳定性、水力梯度、水力传导率、地下水化学）。人类健康方面包括受体群体（人口统计学、密度、分散和距离）、潜在途径（饮用水源、园艺、钓鱼）和暴露机会（生活方式活动）。对于这三种信息需求类型，我们预计只有少数指标适用于特定地点，利益相关者应该就特定地点的一套指标达成一致。
