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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Pit Technologies at a Glance

The National Nuclear Security Administration has tasked Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with important national security work: to develop a plutonium pit manufacturing capability and deliver a minimum of 30 plutonium pits per year in the years ahead. A pit is a hollow sphere of plutonium that, when uniformly compressed by explosives inside a warhead or bomb, causes a nuclear explosion. New pits are needed to maintain the nation’s nuclear stockpile and are a key component of nuclear deterrence and world peace. LANL’s Pit Technologies (PT) division manufactures these pits safely and securely. The work takes place in the Plutonium Facility (PF-4), the nation’s most modern plutonium science and manufacturing facility. LANL is currently the only place in the country with the capability to manufacture plutonium pits.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Multi-Task with Procter and Gamble (CRADA No. NFE-10-02672)

The purpose of this Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between UT-Battelle, LLC (the “Contractor) and Procter & Gamble Company (the “Participant”) is the development of a research partnership to create new tools, tests and analytical methods to improve the performance, safety and/or environmental quality of chemicals, advanced materials, food products and manufacturing processes. The Participant operates in three global business units: Beauty, Health and Well-Being and Household Care. Some of its worldwide products include Head and Shoulders®, Pantene®, Gillette® razors and personal care products, Crest®, Dawn®, Tide®, Bounty®, Duracell® batteries; and Iams® pet food among others. At its core, however, the Participant is a science driven company. It supports one of the most robust industrial research and development (R&D) programs in the world. The Participant uses this rich foundation of science to drive innovation across all of its product lines. But the innovation process is not confined in-house The Participant pursues an “open innovation” policy, seeking partnerships with scientists and researchers in universities and national laboratories where it can contribute its extensive knowledge assets and collaborate to advance scientific understanding. The research under this multi-task CRADA was directed under the following general task areas and, throughout the duration of this CRADA the work statement was modified to match the needs of the Parties and the direction of the research. (1) Software modeling, simulation and development; (2) Manufacturing Technologies; (3) Supply Chain Optimization, (4) Advanced Materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Model reduction for hypersonic aerodynamics via conservative LSPG projection and hyper-reduction

High-speed aerospace engineering applications rely heavily on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for design and analysis due to the expense and difficulty of flight tests and experiments. This reliance on CFD models necessitates performing accurate and reliable uncertainty quantification (UQ) of the CFD models. However, it is very computationally expensive to run CFD for hypersonic flows due to the fine grid resolution required to capture the strong shocks and large gradients that are typically present. Furthermore, UQ approaches are “many-query” problems requiring many runs with a wide range of input parameters. One way to enable computationally expensive models to be used in such many-query problems is to employ projection-based reduced-order models (ROMs) in lieu of the (high-fidelity) full-order model. In particular, the least-squares Petrov–Galerkin (LSPG) ROM (equipped with hyper-reduction) has demonstrated the ability to significantly reduce simulation costs while retaining high levels of accuracy on a range of problems including subsonic CFD applications. This allows computationally inexpensive LSPG ROM simulations to replace the full-order model simulations in UQ studies, which makes this many-query task tractable, even for large-scale CFD models. This work presents the first application of LSPG to a hypersonic CFD application. In particular, we present results for LSPG ROMs of the HIFiRE-1 in a three-dimensional, turbulent Mach 7.1 flow, showcasing the ability of the ROM to significantly reduce computational costs while maintaining high levels of accuracy in computed quantities of interest.

Fluid Dynamics↗
DOE OSTI2019

SMART Cables for Observing the Global Ocean: Science and Implementation

The ocean is key to understanding societal threats including climate change, sea level rise, ocean warming, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Because the ocean is difficult and costly to monitor, we lack fundamental data needed to adequately model, understand, and address these threats. One solution is to integrate sensors into future undersea telecommunications cables. This is the mission of the SMART subsea cables initiative (Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications). SMART sensors would “piggyback” on the power and communications infrastructure of a million kilometers of undersea fiber optic cable and thousands of repeaters, creating the potential for seafloor-based global ocean observing at a modest incremental cost. Initial sensors would measure temperature, pressure, and seismic acceleration. The resulting data would address two critical scientific and societal issues: the long-term need for sustained climate-quality data from the under-sampled ocean (e.g., deep ocean temperature, sea level, and circulation), and the near-term need for improvements to global tsunami warning networks. A Joint Task Force (JTF) led by three UN agencies (ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC) is working to bring this initiative to fruition. This paper explores the ocean science and early warning improvements available from SMART cable data, and the societal, technological, and financial elements of realizing such a global network. Simulations show that deep ocean temperature and pressure measurements can improve estimates of ocean circulation and heat content, and cable-based pressure and seismic-acceleration sensors can improve tsunami warning times and earthquake parameters. The technology of integrating these sensors into fiber optic cables is discussed, addressing sea and land-based elements plus delivery of real-time open data products to end users. The science and business case for SMART cables is evaluated. SMART cables have been endorsed by major ocean science organizations, and JTF is working with cable suppliers and sponsors, multilateral development banks and end users to incorporate SMART capabilities into future cable projects. By investing now, we can build up a global ocean network of long-lived SMART cable sensors, creating a transformative addition to the Global Ocean Observing System.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

OECD-NEA Expert Group on Multi-Physics Experimental Data, Benchmarks and Validation

High-fidelity, multi-physics modeling and simulation (M&S) tools are being developed and utilized for a variety of applications in nuclear science and technology and show great promise in their abilities to reproduce observed phenomena for many applications. Even with the increasing fidelity and sophistication of coupled multi-physics M&S tools, the underpinning models and data still need to be validated against experiments that may require a more complex array of validation data because of the great breadth of the time, energy and spatial domains of the physical phenomena that are being simulated. The Expert Group on Multi-Physics Experimental Data, Benchmarks and Validation (MPEBV) of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was formed to address the challenges with the validation of such tools. The work of the MPEBV expert group is shared among three task forces to fulfill its mandate and specific exercises are being developed to demonstrate validation principles for common industrial challenges. This paper describes the overall mission of the group, the specific objectives of the task forces, the linkages among the task forces, and the development of a validation exercise that focuses on a specific reactor challenge problem.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Remediation Technologies Screening Report for the Deep Vadose Zone, Hanford's Central Plateau - 12414

Deep Vadose Zone contamination is a significant issue because it represents a potential source for continued release of contamination to the groundwater and associated receptors. This contamination, which is the result of past waste disposal practices on the Hanford Site Central Plateau, occurs deep in the subsurface and is not easily remediated by typical surface remedies. The Deep Vadose Zone is defined as the sediment below the limit of typical surface-based remedies (such as, excavation or caps), but above the water table. The Central Plateau Deep Vadose Zone begins at a depth of approximately 15 m (50 ft) below ground surface and extends to a depth of approximately 76 m (250 ft) below ground surface. Cleanup of the Deep Vadose Zone is challenging because contamination is difficult to access and expensive to characterize; contaminants occur at different depths and soil types; conventional, surface-based remedies have limited effectiveness; and remedy performance is difficult to predict, test, and monitor. Typically, remedial technologies for Deep Vadose Zone contamination are less developed than for the shallow soil contamination or saturated groundwater contaminants. In addition, few remediation technologies have been tested in the field, and fewer still have been successfully implemented as full remedial actions. These challenges, along with the limited number of potentially applicable remediation technologies, complicate the decision-making process for evaluating and selecting Deep Vadose Zone remedial alternatives. The Deep Vadose Zone remediation technologies pre-screening involved a comprehensive review of potentially applicable technologies for remediating Deep Vadose Zone contamination in the Hanford Site's Central Plateau. The list of remediation technologies was developed from previous Hanford Site studies, science and technology databases, as well as other cleanup projects across the country that have similar conditions. The list of remediation technologies was shared with the public and stakeholders to provide an opportunity to identify additional technologies. From these efforts, 59 technologies that may support future remediation of the Deep Vadose Zone were identified. The initial list of 59 potential technologies were then screened in order to identify viable or potentially viable technologies whose implementation would benefit from further investigation and evaluation during the remedial investigation/feasibility study activities. This approach eliminated five technologies from further consideration because they either would not be ready to support remediation within the next 3 to 5 years or were not applicable for Deep Vadose Zone remediation. Eleven (11) technologies were identified as viable, requiring no further testing or investigation during the RCRA Facility Investigation/Remedial Investigation activities. The remaining 43 potentially applicable technologies were identified as requiring additional testing or investigation to determine whether they should be considered further in the selection of a remedial alternative for the 200-DV-1 Operable Unit. The results of this pre-screening effort will be used to plan and scope the appropriate field investigation, treatability study, and feasibility study tasks during development of the 200-DV-1 Operable Unit Work Plan. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

Prospects and Challenges in the Management of Non-Retrievable Radioactive Waste in the Russian Federation - 17212

In 2011, the Federal Law 'On the Management of Radioactive Waste' was enacted in the Russian Federation setting a framework for the Unified State System for Radioactive Waste Management and establishing a mandatory requirement for safe radioactive waste (RW) disposal. Particular category of 'non-retrievable RW' was defined given the amount of RW generated by that time, the issues associated with relevant sites, as well as the experience gained during the implementation of nuclear legacy programs. It was specified that in situ disposal is the preferred management option for this category of waste rather than RW retrieval and re-disposal due to relevant radiation and financial aspects. In 2011 - 2015, a set of high-priority tasks on taking the inventory of accumulated RW was accomplished. This work also provided for demonstrating the feasibility and making key decisions on the final stages on their lifecycle and relevant end-state strategies. Facilities holding non-retrievable RW were divided into two categories: - subject to transition into near-surface storage facilities by constructing additional safety barriers; - subject to controlled long-term storage followed by remediation. Efforts on a number of surface liquid RW storage water reservoirs falling under the first category launched back in the 20. century were completed. The new federal program provides for a set of follow-up efforts to be completed at 12 facilities. As it comes to the second category, the main task was to develop a set of safety management options, as well as some computational methods to demonstrate the feasibility of the selected end-state strategies. The most considerable efforts were made at the Techa Cascade of water reservoirs being the largest liquid radioactive waste (LRW) storage facility in the world that holds over 360 million m{sup 3} of waste with uncertain legal status, the lack of relevant computational models to predict its state. The paper summarizes the data on defining the end states of non-retrievable RW, completed and scheduled efforts on implementing relevant long-term safety strategies. The paper focuses on subsurface repositories and near-surface LRW storage reservoirs considered as common types of facilities holding non-retrievable RW. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

Predicting individual action switching in covert and continuous interactive tasks using the fluid events model

The Fluid Events Model is aimed at predicting changes in the actions people take on a moment-by-moment basis. In contrast with other research on action selection, this work does not investigate why some course of action was selected, but rather the likelihood of discontinuing the current course of action and selecting another in the near future. This is done using both task-based and experience-based factors. Prior work evaluated this model in the context of trial-by-trial, independent, interactive events, such as choosing how to copy a figure of a line drawing. In this paper, we extend this model to more covert event experiences, such as reading narratives, as well as to continuous interactive events, such as playing a video game. To this end, the model was applied to existing data sets of reading time and event segmentation for written and picture stories. It was also applied to existing data sets of performance in a strategy board game, an aerial combat game, and a first person shooter game in which a participant’s current state was dependent on prior events. The results revealed that the model predicted behavior changes well, taking into account both the theoretically defined structure of the described events, as well as a person’s prior experience. Hence, theories of event cognition can benefit from efforts that take into account not only how events in the world are structured, but also how people experience those events.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Optimizing Data Locality for Fork/Join Programs Using Constrained Work Stealing

We present an approach to improving data locality across different phases of fork/join programs scheduled using work stealing. The approach consists of: (1) user-specified and automated approaches to constructing a steal tree, the schedule of steal operations and (2) constrained work stealing algorithms that constrain the actions of the scheduler to mirror a given steal tree. These are combined to construct work stealing schedules that maximize data locality across computation phases while ensuring load balance within each phase. These algorithms are also used to demonstrate dynamic coarsening, an optimization to improve spatial locality and sequential overheads by combining many finer-grained tasks into coarser tasks while ensuring sufficient concurrency for locality-optimized load balance. Implementation and evaluation in Cilk demonstrate performance improvements of up to 2.5x on 80 cores. We also demonstrate that dynamic coarsening can combine the performance benefits of coarse task specification with the adaptability of finer tasks.

cilk↗
DOE OSTI2012

Joint EM-NE-International Study of Glass Behavior over Geologic Time Scales - 12303

Vitrification has been chosen as the best demonstrated available technology for waste immobilization worldwide. To date, the contributions of physical and chemical processes controlling the long-term glass dissolution rate in geologic disposal remain uncertain, leading to a lack of international consensus on a rate law for glass corrosion. Existing rate laws have overcome uncertainty through conservatism, but a thorough mechanistic understanding of waste form durability in geologic environments would improve public and regulator confidence. If it is possible to take credit for the true durability of the waste form in repository system evaluations, then it is possible to design the repository with less conservatism with concomitant cost savings. To gain a fundamental understanding of the dissolution rate law, six nations have joined together to formulate a joint plan for collaborative research into the mechanisms controlling the long-term corrosion of glass. This report highlights the technical program plan behind the US portion of this effort, with an emphasis on the current understanding (and limitations) of several mechanistic theories for glass corrosion. Some recent results are presented to provide an example of the ongoing research. Atom probe tomography has been used to provide a high-resolution analysis of elemental concentration gradients present at the hydrated glass / pristine glass interface in SON68 after 25.75 years of corrosion in a simulated granitic groundwater at 90 deg. C. The most valuable result of these initial studies is the success of the technique. Characterization by APT had never been previously demonstrated for glass corrosion layers. The resolution of APT is a powerful addition to the tools with which we can investigate the mechanisms dominating glass corrosion. Some other key results of this study include the observation that the elemental interfacial width between the hydrated glass and pristine glass appears to be much sharper (∼2 nm for B, Na and Al) than had been previously measured using nanoSIMS (∼240 nm). It is not clear whether the APT analysis and nanoSIMS characterizations were possibly performed on topographically unique regions, or whether nanoSIMS overestimated the elemental width. However, the APT data seems very convincing that the elemental width can be much sharper than was previously thought. This result calls into question some of the assumptions made for the diffusion-control models of glass dissolution, since such a sharp profile would not match the diffusion coefficients used to date. Other results, such as the observation of apparently layered concentration profiles, show that gel evolution is not as simple as is currently assumed in nearly every model. This task is a good example of the collaborative nature of the I-TEAM effort. Based on experimental needs and differences in expertise, scientists from DOE and CEA worked together to change the level of understanding in the field. These types of interactions are nearly ubiquitous among the tasks in the technical program plan. With the excellence of the team in place and the willingness of the participants to work together for a common understanding, the stated goal of consensus on the mechanistic basis for radionuclide release from glass is well within reach. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2024

Harnessing large language models’ zero-shot and few-shot learning capabilities for regulatory research

Abstract Large language models (LLMs) are sophisticated AI-driven models trained on vast sources of natural language data. They are adept at generating responses that closely mimic human conversational patterns. One of the most notable examples is OpenAI's ChatGPT, which has been extensively used across diverse sectors. Despite their flexibility, a significant challenge arises as most users must transmit their data to the servers of companies operating these models. Utilizing ChatGPT or similar models online may inadvertently expose sensitive information to the risk of data breaches. Therefore, implementing LLMs that are open source and smaller in scale within a secure local network becomes a crucial step for organizations where ensuring data privacy and protection has the highest priority, such as regulatory agencies. As a feasibility evaluation, we implemented a series of open-source LLMs within a regulatory agency’s local network and assessed their performance on specific tasks involving extracting relevant clinical pharmacology information from regulatory drug labels. Our research shows that some models work well in the context of few- or zero-shot learning, achieving performance comparable, or even better than, neural network models that needed thousands of training samples. One of the models was selected to address a real-world issue of finding intrinsic factors that affect drugs' clinical exposure without any training or fine-tuning. In a dataset of over 700 000 sentences, the model showed a 78.5% accuracy rate. Our work pointed to the possibility of implementing open-source LLMs within a secure local network and using these models to perform various natural language processing tasks when large numbers of training examples are unavailable.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology↗
DOE OSTI2016

Accelerating the Decommissioning of the Sellafield Pile Fuel Storage Pond Using Innovative Remote Tooling Developed with the Supply Chain - 16437

The Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP) at Sellafield and adjoining de-canning building provided the storage, cooling and de-canning facility for used fuel and isotopes from the two Windscale reactors and later some Magnox fuel from the Calder Hall reactors. Operations ceased in the 1970's and the facilities are now undergoing a programme of accelerated decommissioning. The pond is a sub-divided outdoor storage pond containing skips of irradiated fuel and miscellaneous waste items and the building contains a series of sub-ponds, known as bays, connected underwater to the main pond. The radiation environment and access limitations necessitate the use of remote technology for the decommissioning programme. This paper describes the philosophy and approach and the technology and equipment adopted for the removal and export of key plant equipment and waste items from within the PFSP. In order to progress the project cost effectively and speedily, the Sellafield project team looked for partners in the supply chain with the required experience, expertise and facilities to supply and test 'commercial off-the-shelf' (COTS) or modified proprietary equipment. This COTS approach minimised the need for multiple, expensive and lengthy design and manufacturing tasks associated with bespoke equipment. Sellafield partnered with specialist remote handling contractor, James Fisher Nuclear, and the respective project teams worked closely together at every stage of the project from qualifying requirements, identifying potential solutions, through to development, testing, training and final deployment. Optioneering of potential solutions involved early 'proof of principle' trials in JFN rig hall facilities, utilising existing equipment and plant mock-ups, along with other equipment manufactured in-house. Together the project teams selected the best solution to take forward, adopting a practical and trials based approach, which allowed rapid and cost effective modification of the solution throughout the project with minimal impact on the programme. When the final solution was validated, plant operators then gained familiarity and training on the equipment so they could execute the work efficiently on plant and so minimise their dose uptake. The removal of a Large De-canner is described in detail. This was a significant obstruction to the emptying, modification and re-use of the bay and a key milestone in the clean-up of the PFSP. The de-canners are large and heavy pieces of equipment which weigh 6.5 t each and approximately 6.5 m long. Their removal was further complicated by limited equipment and man access, radiological contamination from de-canning fuel, challenging material properties, unknown equipment condition and complex lifting requirements. Sellafield Ltd and JFN project teams worked closely together to rapidly develop, trial and deploy a succession of adapted 'commercial off-the-shelf' (COTS) tools whilst addressing emerging challenges and completing the overall task on time and budget. The Sellafield and JFN project and design teams provided an underwater: wheel stop removal tool; towing trolley; grinder on a carbon fibre pole, chute cutting 600 mm circular saw and hydraulic 6 t winch. The suite of tools will be reused on the remaining de-canners in the PFSP and First Generation Magnox Fuel Storage Pond (FGMSP) giving cost and programme savings. Each of the tools can also be used, and some have already been, for other tasks in the bay retrievals such as the size reduction of support frames, large steel sections and chemical de-canner preparatory works. The 'learning from experience' acquired during the project was shared by the Sellafield project with other decommissioning projects across the site. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

PV Performance Modeling Methods and Practices: Results from the 4th PV Performance Modeling Collaborative Workshop.

In 2014, the IEA PVPS Task 13 added the PVPMC as a formal activity to its technical work plan for 2014-2017. The goal of this activity is to expand the reach of the PVPMC to a broader international audience and help to reduce PV performance modeling uncertainties worldwide. One of the main deliverables of this activity is to host one or more PVPMC workshops outside the US to foster more international participation within this collaborative group. This report reviews the results of the first in a series of these joint IEA PVPS Task 13/PVPMC workshops. The 4th PV Performance Modeling Collaborative Workshop was held in Cologne, Germany at the headquarters of TÜV Rheinland on October 22-23, 2015.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Practice makes imperfect: Working memory training can harm recognition memory performance

There is a great deal of debate concerning the benefits of working memory (WM) training and whether that training can transfer to other tasks. Although a consistent finding is that WM training programs elicit a short-term near-transfer effect (i.e., improvement in WM skills), results are inconsistent when considering persistence of such improvement and far transfer effects. In this study, we compared three groups of participants: a group that received WM training, a group that received training on how to use a mental imagery memory strategy, and a control group that received no training. Although the WM training group improved on the trained task, their posttraining performance on nontrained WM tasks did not differ from that of the other two groups. In addition, although the imagery training group’s performance on a recognition memory task increased after training, the WM training group’s performance on the task decreased after training. Participants’ descriptions of the strategies they used to remember the studied items indicated that WM training may lead people to adopt memory strategies that are less effective for other types of memory tasks. Our results indicate that WM training may have unintended consequences for other types of memory performance.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Exploiting Task Tolerances in Mimicry-based Telemanipulation

We explore task tolerances, i.e., allowable position or rotation inaccuracy, as an important resource to facilitate smooth and effective telemanipulation. Task tolerances provide a robot flexibility to generate smooth and feasible motions; however, in teleoperation, this flexibility may make the user’s control less direct. In this work, we implemented a telema nipulation system that allows a robot to autonomously adjust its configuration within task tolerances. We conducted a user study comparing a telemanipulation paradigm that exploits task tolerances (functional mimicry) to a paradigm that requires the robot to exactly mimic its human operator (exact mimicry), and assess how the choice in paradigm shapes user experience and task performance. Our results show that autonomous adjustments within task tolerances can lead to performance improvements without sacrificing perceived control of the robot. Additionally, we find that users perceive the robot to be more under control, predictable, fluent, and trustworthy in functional mimicry than in exact mimicry.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

A Literature Review and Compilation of Nuclear Waste Management System Attributes for Use in Multi-Objective System Evaluations.

The purpose of this work was to compile a comprehensive initial set of potential nuclear waste management system attributes. This initial set of attributes is intended to serve as a starting point for additional consideration by system analysts and planners to facilitate the development of a waste management system multi-objective evaluation framework based on the principles and methodology of multi-attribute utility analysis. The compilation is primarily based on a review of reports issued by the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future (BRC), but also an extensive review of the available literature for similar and past efforts as well. Numerous system attributes found in different sources were combined into a single objectives-oriented hierarchical structure. This study provides a discussion of the data sources and the descriptions of the hierarchical structure. A particular focus of this study was on collecting and compiling inputs from past studies that involved the participation of various external stakeholders. However, while the important role of stakeholder input in a country's waste management decision process is recognized in the referenced sources, there are only a limited number of in-depth studies of the stakeholders' differing perspectives. Compiling a comprehensive hierarchical listing of attributes is a complex task since stakeholders have multiple and often conflicting interests. The BRC worked for two years (January 2010 to January 2012) to "ensure it has heard from as many points of view as possible." The Canadian NWMO study took four years and ample resources, involving national and regional stakeholders' dialogs, internet-based dialogs, information and discussion sessions, open houses, workshops, round tables, public attitude research, website, and topic reports. The current compilation effort benefited from the distillation of these many varied inputs conducted by the previous studies.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

A Literature Review and Compilation of Nuclear Waste Management System Attributes for Use in Multi-Objective System Evaluations - 16618

The purpose of this work was to compile a comprehensive initial set of potential nuclear waste management system attributes. This initial set of attributes is intended to serve as a starting point for additional consideration by system analysts and planners to facilitate the development of a waste management system multi-objective evaluation framework based on the principles and methodology of multi-attribute utility analysis. The compilation is primarily based on a review of reports issued by the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future (BRC), but also an extensive review of the available literature for similar and past efforts as well. Numerous system attributes found in different sources were combined into a single objectives-oriented hierarchical structure. This study provides a discussion of the data sources and the descriptions of the hierarchical structure. A particular focus of this study was on collecting and compiling inputs from past studies that involved the participation of various external stakeholders. However, while the important role of stakeholder input in a country's waste management decision process is recognized in the referenced sources, there are only a limited number of in-depth studies of the stakeholders' differing perspectives. Compiling a comprehensive hierarchical listing of attributes is a complex task since stakeholders have multiple and often conflicting interests. The BRC worked for two years (January 2010 to January 2012) to 'ensure it has heard from as many points of view as possible'. The Canadian NWMO study took four years and ample resources, involving national and regional stakeholders' dialogs, internet-based dialogs, information and discussion sessions, open houses, workshops, round-tables, public attitude research, web site, and topic reports. The current compilation effort benefited from the distillation of these many varied inputs conducted by the previous studies. The initial set of attributes is intended to provide a starting point for considering potential objectives for evaluating nuclear waste management system options. It is envisioned that this initial set will evolve and be revised as new and additional input is received from stakeholders on various attributes and their relative importance. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗