Masters Theses

Date of Award

3-1983

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Planning

Major

Planning

Major Professor

James A. Spencer

Committee Members

Pat L. Fisher

Abstract

By studying the case of site selection of a shallow land burial facility for disposal of low-level radioactive waste, the premise that use of a methodology can help to resolve both the technical and political The technical and political Then the problems of site selection is examined, background of low-level waste disposal is studied first, important problems involved in site selection of a disposal facility are The major technical problems are lack of complete knowledge The major political problems are lack of trust between experts and the citizenry and inequitable distribution of How to evaluate alternatives is a problem that is both identified. and use of subjective judgment. impacts, technical and political.

The study investigates the use of a methodology as a framework for the evaluation of alternative sites in any likely governmental context in As a systematic set of procedures, a methodology can help to As a demonstrable set of procedures, a the U.S. resolve the technical issues, methodology can help to resolve the political issues, qualities by which a methodology should be judged as systematic and demonstrable are validity, clarity, efficiency, either reliability or The desirable sensitivity, and flexibility.

As a framework for evaluation, a methodology must have the following 1) desired ends, 2) alternative means, and 3) a method of As desired ends, the goals, objectives, and attributes for site selection of a shallow land burial facility are identified, region from which a site is selected is sufficiently large and heterogeneous, it is efficient to evaluate the alternative means in elements: evaluation. If the several iterations. When this is the case, subregions or areas are the alternatives evaluated in preliminary iterations, while sites are the alternatives evaluated in the latter iterations. Descriptive, summation. and probabilistic methods of evaluation are studied to determine their applicability for site selection of a low-level waste facility.

A methodology that consists of up to six iterations is proposed for this case study. The methodology uses the concept of subjective probability to address the problems of incomplete knowledge and subjective judgement. In most of the iterations, attributes are measured this case study. subjective judgment, by the probability that they are suitable, and a joint probability of Because the overall suitability is calculated for each alternative, logic of the process is explicit, the political concensus necessary to implement a decision in a timely manner is easier to achieve because a means of communication among different interests has been established. A preliminary iteration is simulated to demonstrate how the methodology Appraisal of the proposed methodology indicates that it has the qualities of validity, clarity, efficiency, sensitivity, and flexibility. While the premise that a methodology can help resolve the technical and political issues of site selection and cannot be proven definitely to be either true or false, it does appear to be a valid one based on this study.

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