Nuclear Waste

Socioeconomic Dimensions Of Long-term Storage

Steve H. Murdock

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780367169398
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429725142
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Sociología

Critical in solving the nuclear waste problem are such issues as the techniques needed to equitably select waste repository sites; the implications for economies, populations, public services, social structures, and future generations in siting areas; the best means for mitigating short- and long-term public and private impact of repositories; and the type of citizen involvement that best ensures the full participation of national, state, and local interest groups in the siting process. The contributors to this book examine these and related issues, offering the perspectives of sociology, economics, philosophy, and political science and representing the differing views of various regions of the nation.

Impacts of Nuclear Waste Storage and Repository Siting

6
The Socioeconomic Impacts of Repositories

John K. Thomas Rita R. Hamm Steve H. Murdock

Many types of impacts are likely to result from the development of a high-level nuclear waste repository, and Federal and state decision makers, community leaders, and residents must know how communities in repository siting areas will be changed. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly identify: factors affecting an assessment of socioeconomic impacts, the types of socioeconomic impacts (for example, economic, demographic, fiscal, community service, and social impacts) likely to occur as a result of a repository development, and the process for assessing socioeconomic impacts. Additional descriptions of socioeconomic impacts and impact assessment techniques can be obtained from Murdock and Leistritz (1979), Leistritz and Murdock (1981), Finsterbusch and Wolf (1981), Chalmers and Anderson (1977), and Denver Research Institute (1979).

Factors Affecting an Assessment of Socioeconomic Impacts

The factors most likely to affect areas impacted by a repository are numerous and complex. They are similar to the factors that affect nearly all large-scale developments, occurring in rural areas; yet, they are unique because of the nuclear characteristics of the project. Leistritz and Murdock (1981) have identified three groups of factors which are most significant: (1) characteristics of a nuclear waste repository project, (2) characteristics of the area where a repository is sited, and (3) characteristics of the inmigrants who will enter the siting area as a result of a repository's development (see also Murdock and Leistritz, 1979). According to these authors, an a priori understanding of such characteristics is instrumental in determining the nature, extent, and interaction of the socioeconomic effects of a repository project.

Project Characteristics

The characteristics of a nuclear waste repository project relevant to socioeconomic impacts can be divided into two categories: (1) its utilization of areal resources and (2) workforce requirements and characteristics (Murdock and Leistritz, 1979). Each of these sets of characteristics is examined below.

Utilization of Areal Resources. The first set of characteristics involves a repository's need for and utilization of resources in a site area. Resource requirements and their linkages with economic factors are key determinants of numerous effects of a repository project. Thus, requirements for land and water are primary determinants of economic effects.

For example, a repository will require land tor repository siting, railroads and highways, and water resources for waste processing. These requirements of a repository project may compete in a site area with current water usage needs and land use patterns of the local agricultural industry, which might depend on such land and on aquifers and other water sources for grazing, irrigation and watering of livestock. The repository will also have impacts on land use in the local areas. The repository will require 2,000 acres for the facility and an additional 8,000 acres of controlled buffer zone will be required around the project site. It is unclear how land owners next to the project site will react and how the uses and values of land near the site will be affected. In addition, project characteristics may have other, more subtle effects. For instance, the aesthetic aspects of a facility along with its impacts on the physical environment may affect residents' perceptions and acceptance of the project as well as alter their basic orientations toward land use (Leistritz and Murdock, 1981).

Workforce Requirements and Characteristics. Project characteristics are particularly important in influencing workforce requirements and characteristics. Resource development projects differ in their total workforce requirements, in the timing of those requirements (particularly the relative size of construction and operation workforces), and in the mix of required skill levels. These requirements in turn influence the extent to which a project utilizes local labor and the wage and salary levels of project workers. The nature of the project's technology, coupled with its construction schedule, will determine the size of the peak workforce. Thus, the total demand for labor by a project and secondary business growth are key factors in determining the eventual nature and magnitude of economic, population, public service, and fiscal effects (Leistritz and Murdock, 1981).

Depending on the type of subsurface geological formation and the type of repository (for example, salt, granite, shale, or basalt media and spent fuel or reprocessing facilities), repository facilities will require about 7 years to build and will generally involve (for a spent fuel repository) from 1,700 to 5,000 workers during construction and from about 900 to 1,100 workers during operation (see table 6.1). Furthermore, these facilities are likely to require monitoring for an indefinite period.

The availability and compatibility of labor skills of residents in site areas with those required by the project will determine how many jobs can be taken by residents and how many new employees must inmigrate. Moreover, the existing service industries and community growth preferences will often decrease or accentuate the attractiveness of the communities to new residents and thus alter the number of new residents moving to a community.

Areal Characteristics

Before discussing major types of socioeconomic impacts, it is useful also to discuss areal characteristics which may influence such impacts. This is particularly important for two reasons: (1) differences between the historical, economic, and cultural characteristics of communities in site areas may lead to differences in the effects of such repositories on the communities, and (2) preliminary identification by the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that several potential sites for nuclear repositories will be located in sparsely populated areas.

Historical Factors. A community's history of economic and population growth or decline may influence how a repository development affects it. Despite recent patterns of renewed growth in some rural areas, many areas have shown little renewed growth and, in fact, have shown decades of population and economic decline. For communities in these areas, large resource developments, such as repositories, may bring growth patterns that are difficult to manage and may produce public service demands that burden staffs and fiscal resources of local organizations. For areas that have been experiencing slow or moderate growth, past growth patterns may have provided local leaders and decision makers with a useful base of experience that will allow them to more effectively manage patterns of growth. Finally, in areas with histories of extremely rapid growth, a new development may compound existing problems and further overload existing facilities.

An area's experience with large scale developments

Table 6.1
High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository Enploysent Requirements

	Average Annual Repository Employment
	Spent Fuel		Rep666rocessing Waste
Repository Medium	Construction^*	Operation	Construction^*	Operation
Salt	1,700	870	2,000	1,300
Granite	4,200	1,100	3,000	1,300
Shale	2,200	880	2,100	1,200
Basalt	5,000	1,100	3,800	1,500

* Average of the peak years.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (1980a).

and developers may also affect its social environment and its desire to support other developments. For example, in many areas of the West, the boom-and-bust cycles of the past have made citizens cautious about growth and its expected benefits (McKee, 1974). In addition, since many areas have experienced large scale developments that have changed the level of community control and autonomy, communities may resist developments that are under the control of decision makers and organizations from outside their local area (Kraenzel, 1955). Thus, the developmental history of an area is an important factor in public acceptance of these developments and other types of social change (Ballard et al., 1981).

Economic Factors. The economic context of an area also affects the residents' perceptions of the development and the availability of goods and services for the project. For example, areas in which agriculture predominates have distinctively different ways of life and different requirements for labor than mining and manufacturing areas. Communities in which tourism and services dominate are different from industrial communities. The economic context and complexity of communities affect how residents' daily social experiences are structured and what types of organizations (for example, granges or union halls) are present.

Further, an area's economic structure may affect firms involved in the development of a repository project in several ways. It may affect their ability to purchase construction supplies and other materials locally and may influence the likelihood of project workers to purchase goods and services locally (Leistritz and Murdock, 1981). Similarly, the number, types, and levels of skills of residents in site areas will affect the availability of workers for certain kinds of jobs necessary in the construction and operation of a repository facility. Thus, if a rural area's economic structure is insufficient to support such a development project, there is a high likelihood that primary and secondary linked businesses and manpower pools will inmigrate (Gilmore et al., 1975). This inmigration, subsequently, will have a substantial...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• DIMENSIONS OF THE NUCLEAR WASTE PROBLEM
• IMPACTS OF NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AND REPOSITORY SITING
• MITIGATION OF THE IMPACTS OF NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AND REPOSITORY SITING
• LOCAL COMMUNITY RESPONSE AND PARTICIPATION IN NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY SITING
• Summary and Conclusions
• References
• Index