The impact of organization on the acceptance of innovative cleanup technology
- Battelle Seattle Research Center, WA (United States)
Application of innovative technology is widely viewed as critical in completing the nation`s cleanup agenda. Despite policy, procedures, and programs encouraging innovative technologies, the results to date have been modest in terms of actual innovative technologies selected for remediation at Superfund sites. At DOE and DOE sites, the reason may be partially one of timing. Most federal facility agreements are only a few years old and many of these sites are not yet into the remediation phase. Moreover, some federal facilities pose unique cleanup challenges requiring unique technology that will take time to develop. Nonetheless, research on the regulatory barriers to innovative technology, including a review of decision documents and a series of of interviews with regulators, indicates that one crucially important set of factors affecting the acceptance of innovative technology is organizational. With an emphasis on DOE facilities, this paper explores how organization affects technology acceptance by examining its impact on the information about innovative technology available to decision makers, the extent to which an innovative technology is included among the alternatives available for selection, and the ability of the system to implement innovative technology successfully. It concludes with several recommendations for enhancing the likelihood of innovative acceptance.
- Research Organization:
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Coll. of Engineering and Mines; New Mexico State Univ., University Park, NM (United States); Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC), Las Cruces, NM (United States); USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 121046
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940225--Vol.2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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