Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T06:59:07.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hydrogeology and Framing Questions Having Policy Consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Kristin Shrader-Frechette
Kristin Shrader-Frechette*
Affiliation:
University of South Florida
*
†Philosophy Department and Environmental Sciences and Policy Program, 107 CPR, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620–5550.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Assessing the hydrogeological modeling at the Yucca Mountain and Maxey Flats nuclear repositories reveals a number of important ways in which theory choice can go wrong. The two cases suggest that there are at least six important criteria for evaluating the suitability of scientific models to be used for predictions intended to serve public policy. More generally, the paper argues that applied philosophy of science, as practiced in environmental policymaking, requires one to employ ethical rationality as well as scientific rationality, to heed the advice of the moral philosopher, not merely that of the epistemologist or philosopher of science.

Type
Symposium: Science and Social Responsibility
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue S4: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Dec., 1997 , 1997 , pp. S149 - S160
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bedinger, M. S. and Stevens, P. R. (eds.) (1990), Safe Disposal of Radionuclides in Low-Level Radioactive-Waste Repository Sites. US Geological Survey Circular 1036. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Blanchard, R. L., Montgomery, D. M., and Kolde, H. E. (1977), Radiological Measurements at the Maxey Flats Radioactive Waste Burial Site, EPA-520/5–76–020. Cincinnati, OH: US Environmental Protection Agency.Google Scholar
Carey, W. P., Lyverse, M. A., and Hupp, C. R. (1990), Hillslope Erosion at the Maxey Flats Radioactive Waste Disposal Site. Water Resources Institute Report 89–4199. Louisville, KY: US Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Clark, D. T. and Wilson, B. M. (October 21, 1974), Radiological Health Program, “Project Report, Kentucky Radioactive Waste Disposal Site”, Memorandum to Stanley Hammons, M.D. Frankfort, KY: Bureau for Health Services, State of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Eschwege, H. (1976), of the US General Accounting Office, “Testimony before Congress”, in US Congress, Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal.Google Scholar
Fleming, G. (1975), Computer Simulation Techniques in Hydrology. New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Gross, P. R. and Levitt, N. (1994), Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Haney, D. C. (1994), “Maxey Flats, Kentucky, Low-Level Nuclear Waste Repository: Past, Present, and Future”, Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs 26: 105–106.Google Scholar
Hartnett, C. (1994), “The Cleanup of Releases of Radioactive Materials from Commercial Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Sites”, Natural Resources Journal 34: 349–377.Google Scholar
Hopkins, H. (1962), “Ground-Water Conditions at Maxey Flats, Fleming County, Kentucky”, unpublished US Geological Survey report. Louisville, KY: Department of the Interior.Google Scholar
Hyland, P. et al. (1980), Legislative Research Commission, Report of the 1978–1979 Interim Special Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste Disposal, Research Report No. 167. Frankfort, KY: Legislative Research Commission.Google Scholar
Hyland, P. et al. (1982), Legislative Research Commission, Report of the Special Advisory Committee on Nuclear Issues, Research Report No. 192. Frankfort, KY: Legislative Research Commission.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1977), Progress and Its Problems. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1994), The Book of Risks. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Linsley, R. K., Kohler, M. A., and Paulhus, J. L. (1975), Hydrology for Engineers, 2nd. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Lyverse, M. A. (1990), “Results of Recent Geohydrologic Studies at the Maxey Flats Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Site, Fleming County, Kentucky”, in M. S. Bedinger and P. R. Stevens (eds.), Safe Disposal of Radionuclides in Low-Level Radioactive-Waste Repository Sites. US Geological Survey Circular 1036. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Maddox, J. (1994), “Defending Science Against Anti-Science”, Nature 368: 185.10.1038/368185a0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, G. (1975), “Maxey Flats Radioactive Waste Burial Site: Status Report”, unpublished report. Washington, DC: Advanced Science and Technology Branch, US Environmental Protection Agency.Google Scholar
Meyer, G (1976), Preliminary Data on the Occurrence of Transuranium Nuclides in the Environment at the Radioactive Waste Burial Site, Maxey Flats, Kentucky, EPA-520/3–75–021. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency.Google Scholar
National Research Council (NRC) (1995), Technical Bases for Yucca Mountain Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Neel, J. (1976), “Statement”, in US Congress, Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal.Google Scholar
Oreskes, N., Shrader-Frechette, K. S., and Belitz, K. (1994), “Verification, Validation, and Confirmation of Numerical Models in the Earth Sciences”, Science 263: 641–646.10.1126/science.263.5147.641CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Papadopulos, S. S. and Winograd, I. (1974), Storage of Low-Level Radioactive Wastes in the Ground: Hydrogeologic and Hydrochemical Factors, EPA-520/3–74–009. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency.Google Scholar
Powell, N. (1991), “A Concerned Community: Plutonium Had Migrated Hundreds of Feet”, Environmental Protection Agency Journal 17: 31–32.Google Scholar
Sagoff, M. (1985), Risk Benefit Analysis in Decisions Concerning Public Safety and Health. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt.Google Scholar
Scheffler, I. (1982), Science and Subjectivity, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Schoeller, H. (1974), “Analytical and Investigational Techniques for Fissured and Fractured Rocks”, in Brown, R. H., Konoplyantsev, A. A., Ineson, J., and Kovalevsky, V. S. (eds.), Ground- Water Studies. New York: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 14.1–14.3.Google Scholar
Shrader-Frechette, K. S. (1993), Burying Uncertainty: Risk and the Case Against Geological Disposal of Nuclear Waste. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrader-Frechette, K. S. and McCoy, E. D. (1993), Method in Ecology. New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511623394CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todd, D. K. (1980), Groundwater Hydrology. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Trask, N. J. and Stevens, P. R. (1991), US Geological Survey Research in Radioactive Waste Disposal, WRI Report 91–4084. Reston, VA: US Geological Survey.Google Scholar
US Congress. (1976), Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal, Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, 94th Congress, Second Session, February 23, March 12, April 6, 1976. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Walker, I. (1962), Geological and Hydrologic Evaluation of a Proposed Site for Burial of Solid Radioactive Wastes Northwest of Morehead, Fleming County, Kentucky. Kearney, NJ: US Geological Survey unpublished report.Google Scholar
Ward, R. C. (1975), Principles of Hydrology, 2nd ed. London: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Weiss, A. and Columbo, P. (1980), Evaluation of Isotope Migration—Land Burial, NUREG/CR-1289 BNL-NUREG-51143, Washington, DC: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.Google Scholar
Werner, E. (1980), Joint Intensity Survey in the Morehead, Kentucky, Area. Louisville, KY: US Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Wilson, K. S. and Lyons, B. E. (1991), Groundwater Levels and Tritium Concentrations at the Maxey Flats Site, WRI Report 90–4189. Louisville, KY: US Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Younker, J. L. et al. (1992), Report of the Peer Review Panel on the Early Site Suitability Evaluation of the Potential Repository Site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, SAIC-91/8001; Washington, DC: US Department of Energy.Google Scholar
Zehner, H. H. (1981), Hydrogeologic Investigation of the Maxey Flats Radioactive Waste Burial Site, Fleming County, Kentucky, US Geological Survey Open File Report. Louisville, KY: US Department of the Interior, US Geological Survey.Google Scholar