Safety and Environmental Analyses for Space Nuclear Programs d. j. McConnell Environmental safety, risk assessment, and risk avoidance are extremely topical. The journal Science recently ran a lead editorial entitled: ‘The Scare of the Week’ [1], That editorial refers to conflicts of interest not only in industry—which are widely acknowledged, but also on the part of public interest groups. Such groups seek publicity and keep their names in the public eye in order to attract members, donations and other forms of support. It is possible that premature, and possibly needless, alarms may be raised to gain publicity. Nevertheless, the public accepts the alarms because government and industry have not always been forthcoming about the real risks of environmental and public health insults as a result of their activities. So there is healthy distrust. The only way to overcome such distrust is by establishing a record of thorough effective exposure of the risks in future activities. The purpose of this paper is to describe some modern tools and procedures available, and to cite the Galileo program environmental and safety analysis as an example. It is hoped that, by candid and forthright presentation of risks, space nuclear power programs can avoid the resistance and delay that have haunted commercial nuclear power programs in the United States. As taxpayers, citizens and fellow travelers on Spaceship Earth, we all want both to protect the environment and wisely use the earth’s resources to provide a good life for ourselves as well as for future generations. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and other agencies have developed detailed regulations [2, 3] to implement the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The basic environmental document is the environmental impact statement (EIS). Its purpose is to enable an environmentally informed decision. The EIS is not, in itself, a document embodying a decision, but an EIS or environmental assessment should accompany proposals for major federal actions. No one should begin or commit resources to an activity which could impact the environmental until the environmental consequences of the activity are assessed. The structure and organization of an EIS have been standardized as shown below: Chapter I: Purpose and need for the proposed action. Chapter II: Alternatives considered including the proposed action. Chapter III: The affected environment. D. J. McConnell, NASA Headquarters, Code EL, Washington, DC 20546, USA.
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