Open systems of environmental decision making : the MRS Nuclear Waste siting case in Tennessee

Decision making in the science and technology policy domain has traditionally been an exclusive enterprise, with scientific and technical elites working within the confines of the administrative state to create public policy. Policies generated from this type of decision making process have been perceived by the public as unsuccessful, so much so that this sort of closed system is gradually being replaced by a more open one in which citizens and subnational governments play a significantly larger role in the formation of technical policy.

This study is concerned with, within the context of the emerging open system of administrative decision making, how America's public sector is handling the challenge of implementing an environmental policy which commands technical expertise—managing the nation's highly-radioactive nuclear waste. How can a modern democratic system adapt to greater participation in a complex policy area once monopolized by a small cadre of technical specialists, and what are the implications for public managers of a more open system?

These questions lead to the application of a model of science and technology policy to a case study tracing the attempted siting by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1985 of a monitored retrievable storage facility in Tennessee. Extensive personal interviews with key actors at the local, state, and national levels, as well as a review of agency files and relevant documents comprise the data base, A systematic examination of the Tennessee case finds that a more open system of decision making does not alone guarantee successful implementation of science and technology policy, but can be useful provided that the process is truly open. The analysis suggests that more open decision making is likely to affect the performance of public managers charged with implementing technical policies. The responsibility of defining the parameters of open systems remains with the Congress.