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Consideration on the Intergenerational Ethics on Uranium Waste Disposal.

Hiroshi YasudaHiromichi FumotoTatsuo SaitoShin-Etsu SugawaraShoji Tsuchida
Published in: Current environmental health reports (2024)
Uranium (half-life: 4.5 billion years) produces various progeny radionuclides through radioactive decay over the long term, and its radioactivity, as the sum of its contributions, continues to increase for more than 100,000 years. In contrast to high-level radioactive wastes, protective measures, such as attenuation of radiation and confinement of radionuclides from the disposal facility, cannot work effectively for uranium waste. Thus, additional considerations from the perspective of intergenerational ethics are needed in the strategy for uranium waste disposal. The current generation, which has benefited from the use and disposal of uranium waste, is responsible for protecting future generations from the potential risk of buried uranium beyond the lifetime of a disposal facility. Fulfilling this responsibility means making more creative efforts to convey critical information on buried materials to the distant future to ensure that future generations can properly take measures to reduce the harm by themselves in response to changing circumstances including people's values.
Keyphrases
  • municipal solid waste
  • sewage sludge
  • anaerobic digestion
  • heavy metals
  • current status
  • public health
  • magnetic resonance
  • big data
  • lymph node
  • healthcare
  • quality improvement
  • computed tomography
  • radiation induced