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Title	After September 11, 2001: Risk Perception and Risk Assessment of American Indian Pueblos and Tribes of New Mexico on the Impacts of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Its Transuranic Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes
Accession No	01046880
Authors	Straus, Sandy H
Conference Title	Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
Corp. Authors / Publisher	Transportation Research Board
Publication Date	20070000
Description	33p; Appendices(3); Figures(1); References(71); Tables(3)
Media Type	CD-ROM
Languages	English
Abstract	A survey of environmental representatives of all American Indian pueblos and reservations in the State of New Mexico (n = 23) is presented to determine the perception of impacts and risks associated with the transportation routes of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the world’s deepest and largest transuranic nuclear waste repository, located in southeastern New Mexico. A separate risk assessment, based on vehicular accidents and fatalities, is also performed. We demonstrate that the societal risks on the roads of New Mexico American Indian pueblos and reservations are significantly and historically higher than on New Mexico and national roads. Although the United States Department of Energy, the owner and operator of the WIPP, and, ultimately, Yucca Mountain, the proposed high-level waste nuclear repository in Nevada, has taken substantial steps to implement emergency preparedness programs with respect to nuclear waste transport, our findings suggest that many key issues remain unresolved after September 11, 2001. Both national and international nuclear waste repository programs, wherever subsurface storage or burial of hazardous wastes are planned or implemented, stand to be effected by these outcomes. Therefore, as long as radioactive waste transportation continues to the WIPP, we suggest that further safety measures and risk controls are implemented on the roads of New Mexico and its American Indian pueblos and reservations. Suggestions for further risk assessment research efforts are also discussed.
TRT Terms	Environmental protection ; Environmental risk assessment ; Fatalities ; Hazardous wastes ; Native Americans ; Radioactive waste disposal ; Spent reactor fuels ; Spills (Pollution) ; Transportation policy
Geographical Terms	New Mexico
Subject Areas	I10 Economics and administration; H51 SAFETY; H15 SOCIOECONOMICS
Report Number	07-3268
Availability	Transportation Research Board Business Office Order Document: http://gulliver.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=7286
URLs	Order: http://pubsindex.trb.org/orderform.html
Document Source	Source Data: Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2007 Paper #07-3268
TRIS Files	HRIS; BTRIS
Database	TRIS Online