Industrial Ecology and the Geoenvironment - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 131

fossil fuel (source material), and delivery of the fuel, (2) conversion of the source material
into energy, i.e., energy production, and (3) transmission of the energy to the consumer
(infrastructure). The discussion on the stressors and their impacts, generated from extrac-
tion of the resource, can be found in the next chapter, which deals with nonrenewable
resources extraction and their stressors and impacts. The sources of stressors that will
generate adverse impacts on the geoenvironment from the mining and drilling operations
include mine drainage, discards and spills from mining operations, and waste streams.
There are textbooks devoted to mining, petroleum, and coal mining operations and tech-
nologies, which the reader should consult for detailed discussions on how these types of
industries operate.
4.8.1.1 Geoenvironment Stressors
By and large, the sources of stressors associated with fossil fuel energy production can be
traced to
• Operations required in conversion of source material to energy : The sources of stressors
for energy production are essentially similar to most manufacturing-production
industries, i.e., the sources are mostly related to processing, manufacturing, and
production operations, with differences in composition, quantities, and quality of
the discharges and spills attending each type of industry (discussed in Section
4.9 and in Chapters 5 and 6). Spills, discharges of liquid, and solid wastes consti-
tute the major sources of stressors to the geoenvironment. Treatment and disposal
technologies constitute the main elements of a sustainable geoenvironment strat-
egy (see Chapter 10).
• Transmission and delivery of fossil fuel, including land transport systems such as truck-
ing, railways, and pipelines : Assuming that the infrastructure for vehicular (trucks
and trains) land transport systems are already in place, outside of the various
geoenvironment-related aspects associated with of construction of pipelines for
transmission of liquid hydrocarbons, the main source of stressors in respect to
transmission-delivery appears to be spills and inadvertent discharges arising from
vehicular and pipeline accidents and transmission-delivery operations. These
constitute major sources of chemical stressors contaminating the land compart-
ment of the geoenvironment.
4.8.2 Nuclear Energy
The case of nuclear energy production is somewhat unique in that considerations and
accounting for interactions with the geoenvironment must include the time factor as a big
issue. The problem of disposal of high level radioactive waste is of considerable concern
in that one needs to take into account: (a) the level of radioactivity of the spent fuel (high
level radioactive waste), (b) the heat of the spent fuel, (c) the time required for the level of
radioactivity of the spent fuel to reach acceptable limits, as shown in Figure 4.10, i.e., below
threshold levels for exposure to humans, and (d) the time required for the heat to dissipate
and to reach ambient temperature levels, as shown in Figure 4.11 (Yong et al., 2010; Pusch
et al., 2011).
Figure 4.10 shows the time-decay relationship for changes in radioactivity of the fuel
rods given in units of becquerel (Bq) with a burnup of 38 MWd/kg (megawatt days per