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Example research essay topic: Nuclear Power Plant U S Department - 1,835 words

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... o stay in the county. Other residents oppose the facility due to the inherent dangers of nuclear radiation. The Western Governors Association web site stated the following objective for their transportation program: The objective of the Western Governors' Association Radioactive Waste Program is the safe and uneventful transport of waste from temporary storage facilities to more suitable treatment and storage facilities. Western Governors recognize development of a successful transportation program requires cooperation among the western states, the U.

S. Department of Energy and Transportation, and any private shippers of radioactive waste. A transportation safety and information program similar to that developed between the western states and the U. S.

Department of Energy for the shipment of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should be utilized for all route-controlled and special radioactive waste shipping campaigns. A transportation safety program must focus on the states' prominent role in the areas of planning, evaluating routes, ensuring shipment vehicle and driver safety, preventing accidents, preparing emergency and medical response teams, and informing the public. Early coordination and effective communications by all potential shippers with state, tribal, and local governments is essential to the ultimate success of any radioactive waste transportation safety program. (WGA 1). Despite this noble sounding objective the Salt Lake Tribune reported the following: Western governors voted 9 - 2 Tuesday in favor of a resolution calling for the spent fuel from Americas nuclear power plants to be left where it is rather than be transported to a storage site in the West (Harris 1).

Utah Governor, Mike Leavitt was the sponsor of this non-binding resolution. Two thirds of the Skull Valley Goshute tribe support the MRS facility, but the remaining members have hired a three-person law firm to oppose the facility. PFS is battling the opposition with a high-priced legal machine. The minority members of the tribe are requesting government appropriations in the amount of $ 200, 000 to finance this battle. The state of Utah originally appropriated $ 50, 000 to help with their legal fees, but taxpayers are now reluctant to keep donating funds. The stakeholders for and against the project to locate the MRS facility at the Skull Valley Reservation all have valid reasons for their opinions.

The Goshute's have the right to locate the facility on their land. They value their families and want to provide for them the best way they can. The consequences of these actions may endanger their reservation, but with the money they make in the deal will allow them the opportunity to live any where they want. The Goshute's are responsible for their tribe and in the Native American culture they can justify their actions.

The Goshute tribe is not considering the rights of the citizens of Utah or the other states where the hazardous waste will be transported in over the road carriers and rail cars. The PFS values the profit that can be made from operating an MRS facility. The consequences of not locating the MRS facilities are they will have to maintain the storage of this material at their power plants. This is a costly liability for these companies. The PFS is responsible to their customers and the stockholders of the company and their business decision are based on these ideals. The DOE is a division of the U.

S. government and is suppose to be responsible to the American people. In this case they value their legal obligations, the money and the power that the Post lobbyist maintain. The consequences of their actions, which in this case is to locate the MRS facility in Utah, will endanger people around the U. S.

due to the transportation of the hazardous waste from the power plants to the remote MRS site. The stakeholders against locating the MRS facility at the Skull Valley Reservation have the right not to be endangered by the hazardous waste that their state, or states, does not generate. The waste-equity issue that was raised by Bill Sinclair is a valid issue. Just because a state, or in this case a county has a high population of hazardous waste facilities it does not make it right to locate another facility in the same location because the risk of a catastrophic event increases proportionately. Utah Governor, Mike Leavitt, values his state and its residents and the consequences of his actions will either delay the siting of a hazardous waste facility or cause the project to fail completely. Some residents may suffer due to this but the majority will benefit form the process.

Governor Leavitt is responsible to his constituents and he actions are consistent with his values. The SUWA values Utah's wilderness areas. The areas environment and animals are the responsibility of the SUWA members. The consequences of their actions will help preserve the wilderness areas of Utah for generation to come.

The SUWA members are protecting the rights of the next generation to have wilderness areas to enjoy. The Western Governors Association values their states and their constituents. The consequences of their actions may prevent additional hazardous waste from being transported through their respective states. The governors actions are in line with their responsibilities to their states. The Skull Valley Goshute contingent that is opposed to the MRS facility values the land of their forefathers and have vowed to keep it safe from the hazardous materials that threaten it. The consequences of fighting the siting of the MRS facility in Skull Valley are felt by the taxpayers of Utah.

The minority members of the Skull Valley Tribe do not have the financial resources to support a legal battle and therefore the state is appropriating funds for the lawyers. The responsibility of these tribe members is to the future generations of the Skull Valley Goshute tribe. The position I chose to take in this case is that of the CEO of the Private Fuel Storage consortium. The PFS has spent millions of dollars trying unsuccessfully to locate nuclear waste storage facilities in various parts of the country.

The cost of constructing an eighteen-acre facility on the Skull Valley Reservation is estimated at $ 125 million. The payment to the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe is estimated at $ 250 million over a period of 40 years. An estimate for the concrete and steel to manufacture and maintain the casks, which hold the radioactive material, is $ 1 billion over the life of the facility. The cost of fighting the legal roadblocks presented by the various opposition groups, paying off landowners and financing lobbyist efforts is estimated in the millions. The PFS efforts to make money and provide safe storage for the waste their facilities are generating are not meeting stockholders expectations. As previously mention in this paper the major obstacle to siting the MRS facilities is not the storage facility itself, but transporting the waste to the facility.

The solutions that I propose to address the problems will eliminate the need to transport the waste on public roads and rail spurs. Nuclear power facilities are located on large parcels of land that serve as a buffer between the nuclear power plant and the residents of the neighboring towns, villages and cities. The state and federal governments require facilities of this magnitude to prepare a General Development Plan (GDP) for their facilities. A GDP is a state and federally approved plan for a Development of Regional Impact (DRI).

A GDP plan depicts buildings or land improvements that are not yet constructed, but are planned. In the event a company wants to expand its facilities it does not have to go through public hearings if the proposed facility is included on the GDP. I propose to construct limited MRS facilities at each nuclear power plant. Each MRS facility will be designed to handle all the nuclear waste that will be generated by each facility over the life of the facility.

The benefits of this plan are as follows: The need to transport hazardous material on public roads and rail lines will be eliminated, The cost of legal fees will be reduced, the cost to transport the waste will be reduced by 85 %, there will be no need to payoff landowners, there will be no need to pay the $ 250 million to the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe, the American public will realize efficient electrical power without being endangered and the nuclear facilities are consolidated and easier to monitor. This plan also addresses the question of waste-equity by having the benefactors of nuclear power bearing the burden of string its byproducts. The stockholders as well as the American public will realize the benefits of this plan. When I began ethically evaluating the proposal detailed I thought of John Rawls method for evaluating fairness. The method he proposes consists of determining what principles a group of rational self-interested persons would chose to live by if they knew they would live in a society governed by those principles, but they did not yet know what each of them would turn out to be like in that society (Velasquez 115). I believe this rational applies to this case.

I would not want to live next to a nuclear waste storage facility if I did not benefit from the nuclear power that generated the waste. Jeremy Bentham and his traditional views of utilitarianism also lend itself to this evaluation. The utilitarian principle assumes that we can somehow measure and add the quantities of benefits produced by an action and subtract from them the measured quantities of harm the action will have, and thereby determine which action produces the greatest total benefits for all. In this case I have detailed all the cost involved in siting a facility in a rural state that does not benefit from the power the waste generated. The costs are much less and the environmental impact consolidated when the nuclear power and the storage of nuclear waste are consolidated in close proximity to each other. I believe the management decision that I have generated is the appropriate plan of action based on the SAGE sequence for ethical decision making.

Bibliography: Works Cited Goshute Executive Office. Native Americans have the Right to Make Their Own Land-Use Decisions, Environmental Justice. Ed. Jonathan Petrikin.

Green haven Press, Inc. 1995 Skull Valley Goshute Tribe. The Skull Valley Goshute's. 1999. Online, Internet 28 Oct. 1999. Available web Morrow, John. Judge Opens Door for Test Burning at Tooele Incinerator. 1996. Envirobiz, International Environmental Information Network.

Online, Internet 7 Dec. 1999. Available web Parker, Cherie. NSPs Skull Valley Duggery. 1997. Twin Cities Reader.

Online, Internet 7 Dec. 1999, Available web Israels en, Brent. Anti-Nuclear Waste Effort Makes Strange Bedfellows, 1999. The Salt Lake Tribune. Online, Internet 8 Dec. 1999, Available web WGA, Western Governors Association Radioactive Waste Program, 1999. Online, Internet 8 Dec. 1999, Available web Harris, Dan.

Nuclear Waste: Governors against transporting it West, 1999. The Salt Lake Tribune. Online, Internet 28 Nov. 1999. Available web Velasquez, Manuel G. Business Ethics Concepts and Cases.

New Jersey: Prentice Hall 1998


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