RISK-BASED FINANCIAL ASSURANCE FOR LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITIES

The paper presents a risk assessment to characterize the potential for liability costs associated with a facility for disposal of low- level radioactive waste (LLRW). Potential liability costs are grouped into two categories: corrective action costs (e.g., for cleanup of property and the environment) and third-party compensation costs (e.g., for bodily injury and property damage). The risk assessment uses as inputs characterizations of: (1) facility configurations (i.e., combinations of technology type, geographic location, and time period); and (2) source term (e.g., type of waste and radioactivity content) at each stage in the disposal process. The risk assessment analyzes potential events (e.g., compaction accident, earthquake) and their consequences (e.g., dispersion of released materials and subsequent human exposure) for each facility configuration. Finally, the risk assessment estimates the probability and magnitude of corrective action costs and third-party compensation costs attached to the consequences of each event, and combines these estimates with the estimates of the probability of each event to construct a cost curve for corrective action costs and third-party compensation costs. Using these cost curves, financial assurance coverage levels are derived by specifying a not-to-be-exceeded likelihood that potential costs would exceed the coverage amount.