Waste resource newsletter.

Caption title.

Chemical and physical data for disposal wells, Eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho /

Bibliography: leaves 30-31.

Handling and disposal of unwanted radioactive material.

"May 1988."

Mission plan for the civilian radioactive waste management program.

"DOE/RW-0005"

Nuclear waste : storage issues at DOE's waste isolation pilot plant in New Mexico : report to the Chairman, Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee, Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives /

"GAO/RCED-90-1."

Nuclear waste : DOE should provide more information on monitored retrievable storage : report to congressional requestors /

GAO/RCED-87-92.

Nuclear waste : quarterly report on DOE's nuclear waste program as of December 31, 1985 : report to Congressional requesters /

"B-202377"--P. [1].

Nuclear waste management : hearings before the Subcommittee on Fossil and Nuclear Energy Research, Development and Demonstration of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, second session ...

Hearings held June 13-Aug. 1, 1978.

Environmental assessment, Davis Canyon Site, Utah.

At head of title: Nuclear Waste Policy Act (Section 112).

Department of Energy's civilian Nuclear Waste Program : hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress ....

Shipping list no.: 91-436-P (pt. [1]).

Improvements needed in the land disposal of radioactive wastes : a problem of centuries : report to the Congress /

Cover title.

Nuclear waste and facility siting policy : hearings before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session.

Hearings held: May 10-July 19, 1979.

Decision making in nuclear waste management:the use of the synoptic approach

This thesis is concerned with the use of the synoptic approach within decision making concerning nuclear waste management. The synoptic approach to decision making refers to an approach to rational decision making that assumes as an ideal, comprehensiveness of information and analysis. Two case studies are examined in which a high degree of synoptic analysis has been used within the decision making process. The case studies examined are the Windscale Inquiry into the decision to build the THORP reprocessing plant and the Nirex safety assessment of nuclear waste disposal. The case studies are used to test Lindblom's hypothesis that a synoptic approach to decision making is not achievable. In the first case study Lindblom's hypothesis is tested through the evaluation of the decision to build the THORP plant, taken following the Windscale Inquiry. It is concluded that the incongruity of this decision supports Lindblom's hypothesis. However, it has been argued that the Inquiry should be seen as a legitimisation exercise for a decision that was effectively predetermined, rather than a rigorous synoptic analysis. Therefore, the Windscale Inquiry does not provide a robust test of the synoptic method. It was concluded that a methodology was required, that allowed robust conclusions to be drawn, despite the ambiguity of the role of the synoptic method in decision making. Thus, the methodology adopted for the second case study was modified. In this case study the synoptic method was evaluated directly. This was achieved through the analysis of the cogency of the Nirex safety assessment. It was concluded that the failure of Nirex to provide a cogent synoptic analysis supported Lindblom's criticism of the synoptic method. Moreover, it was found that the synoptic method failed in the way that Lindblom predicted that it would.