Risk-Based Ranking Experiences for Cold War Legacy Facilities in the United States
Over the past two decades, a number of government agencies in the United States have faced increasing public scrutiny for their efforts to address the wide range of potential environmental issues related to Cold War legacies. Risk-based ranking was selected as a means of defining the relative importance of issues. Ambitious facility-wide risk-based ranking applications were undertaken. However, although facility-wide risk-based ranking efforts can build invaluable understanding of the potential issues related to Cold War legacies, conducting such efforts is difficult because of the potentially enormous scope and the potentially strong institutional barriers. The U.S. experience is that such efforts are worth undertaking to start building a knowledge base and infrastructure that are based on a thorough understanding of risk. In both the East and the West, the legacy of the Cold War includes a wide range of potential environmental issues associated with large industrial complexes of weapon production facilities. The responsible agencies or ministries are required to make decisions that could benefit greatly from information on the relative importance of these potential issues. Facility-wide risk-based ranking of potential health and environmental issues is one means to help these decision makers. The initial U.S. risk-based ranking applications described in this chapter were “ground-breaking†in that they defined new methodologies and approaches to meet the challenges. Many of these approaches fit the designation of a population-centred risk assessment. These U.S. activities parallel efforts that are just beginning for similar facilities in the countries of the former Soviet Union. As described below, conducting a facility-wide risk-based ranking has special challenges and potential pitfalls. Little guidance exists to conduct major risk-based rankings. For those considering undertaking such efforts, the material contained in this chapter should be useful background information.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 902693
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-38267; TRN: US0702969
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Risk Methodologies for Technological Legacies, 87-106
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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