The Reduction of Risk Perception: Consensus-Making versus Truth-Seeking

Conference · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2006

OSTI ID:21210730

Lawless, W F ^[1]; Whitton, J ^[2]

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1. Paine College, 1235 15th Street, Augusta, GA 30901-3182 (United States)
2. Nexia Solutions, H270 Hinton House, Risley, Warrington, Cheshire (United Kingdom)

We concluded last year that the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) policy of consensus-seeking (CR) for its Citizen Advisory Boards (CAB's or Boards) promoted risk mis-perception, a lack of education, and an anti-science bias about DOE's mission to cleanup its sites. Our conclusions countered an earlier study of the CAB's funded by DOE; using only subjective data, it had concluded that consensus-seeking was an improvement in American democracy. However, our conclusion was reached by comparing decision-making at the CAB's with results in the field at the DOE sites associated with the Boards. To extend our earlier findings, we looked at recent meetings of the Board Chairs and preliminary results from the laboratory. We hypothesize that CR and the truth-seeking from majority rules (MR) reflect a tradeoff between a single world view derived from risk perceptions versus specific guidance from risk determinations. Based on both the field evidence and preliminary data from the experiment, we find that this tradeoff impacts site operations. At DOE's Hanford site, the risk perceptions of its Advisory Board (HAB) have contributed to 'gridlock'; at DOE's Savannah River Site (SRS), the specific recommendations by its Board (SAB) have contributed to accelerating cleanup. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21210730
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--09-WM-06473
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
DECISION MAKING
DECOMMISSIONING
HAZARDS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RECOMMENDATIONS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SAVANNAH RIVER
US DOE