The increasing importance of risk assessment and management in environmental decision-making
Because environmental problems are growing and resources for dealing with them are shrinking, the environmental movement is witnessing an evolutionary shift toward greater emphasis on the use of risk assessment and management tools in setting environmental standards, determining levels of cleanup and deciding environmental program funding priorities. This change has important ramifications for the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories in terms of the costs of weapons facilities cleanup, the types of cleanup technology that will be emphasized and the way the DOE programs will be run. Other Federal agencies responsible for cleanup operations [e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Defense (DOD)] will be similarly affected. This paper defines risk management and risk assessment and explains why these concepts will be of growing importance in the 1990s. It also defines other relevant terms. The paper develops a rationale for why risk assessment and management will be of increasing importance in environmental decision-making in the 1990s and beyond.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 10134806
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-SA-20747; CONF-9206114-21; ON: DE93009217
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 85. annual meeting of the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA),Kansas City, MO (United States),21-26 Jun 1992; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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