On policies to regulate long-term risks from hazardous waste disposal sites under both intergenerational equity and intragenerational equity

In recent years, it has been recognized that there is a need for a general philosophic policy to guide the regulation of societal activities that involve long-term and very long-term risks. Theses societal activities not only include the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes and global warming, but also include the disposal of non-radioactive carcinogens that never decay, such as arsenic, nickel, etc. In the past, attention has been focused on nuclear wastes. However, there has been international recognition that large quantities of non-radioactive wastes are being disposed of with little consideration of their long-term risks.; The objectives of this dissertation are to present the significant long-term risks posed by non-radioactive carcinogens through case studies; develop the conceptual decision framework for setting the long-term risk policy; and illustrate that certain factors, such as discount rate, can significantly influence the results of long-term risk analysis. Therefore, the proposed decision-making framework can be used to systematically study the important policy questions on long-term risk regulations, and then subsequently help the decision-maker to make informed decisions.; Regulatory disparities between high-level radioactive wastes and non-radioactive wastes are summarized. Long-term risk is rarely a consideration in the regulation of disposal of non-radioactive hazardous chemicals; and when it is, the matter has been handled in a somewhat perfunctory manner. Case studies of long-term risks are conducted for five Superfund sites that are contaminated with one or more non-radioactive carcinogens. Under the same assumptions used for the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes, future subsistence farmers would be exposed to significant individual risks, in some cases with lifetime fatality risk equal to unity.; The important policy questions on long-term risk regulation are identified, and the conceptual decision-making framework to regulate long-term risk is presented. The results of decision tree analysis of cleanup alternatives for the Crystal Chemical site indicate that discount rate has profound impact on the results of the analysis and significant implication with regard to intergenerational equity. It is expected that other policy factors could have similar impacts. There is a need to use the proposed decision-making framework to systemically study those factors and make rational policy decisions accordingly.