Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Examination Of Rural Residents’ Perceptions Of Environmental Activities At The Nevada Test Site: Results Of A Mail Questionnaire 2008 – 2009, Helen R. Neill

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Purpose:

Given the U.S. DOE's Environmental Management activities at the Nevada Test Site, what matters to rural residents living nearby?

DOE provided a grant to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to conduct a questionnaire and analyses.

Uncertainty, Climate Change And Nuclear Power, David M. Hassenzahl

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Long time-horizon environmental risks with potential for global impacts have increased in visibility over the past several decades. Such issues as climate change, the nuclear fuel cycle, persistent synthetic chemicals, and stratospheric ozone depletion share some characteristics, including intergenerational impacts, strongly decoupled incidence of risks and benefits, substantial decision stakes and extreme uncertainty. What is not well understood are the similarities and differences among sources and implications of uncertainty among these global environmental threats, especially those associate with current and future human behavior. This describes the uncertainties associated with managing two global concerns: the nuclear (fission) fuel cycle and anthropogenic …

Technical Risk Information: Decision Tool Or Rhetorical Ammunition? Undisputed Facts In The Yucca Mountain Debate, David M. Hassenzahl, Denise Tillery, Paulette Laidler

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

This paper examines how both opponents and proponents of the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca mountain Nevada claim that uncontroversial information supports their conflicting positions. Four pieces of information in particular are claimed by both sides: the distance of the proposed site from Las Vegas, the volume of waste that has been produced, the threat of terrorism since 9/11/01, and the occurrence of an earthquake in early 2002. Possible explanations for the difference include naive positivism, social constructionism, persistent beliefs and implicit warrants. The latter two models better explain observed knowledge/preference states. If so, more or better information …

Perspectives On Economic Analyses For High Level Waste Disposal, Helen R. Neill, Robert H. Neill

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

There are both internal and external pressures on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to reduce costs of disposal and still maintain radiation protection to both present and future generations. The question arises whether both of these goals are attainable.

Resource Use Conflict In New York City's Catskill Watersheds: A Case For Expanding The Scope Of Water Resource Management, Krystyna Anne Stave

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

In New York City's water supply watersheds, controversy over water quality protection underscores both the need to expand the scope of water resource management and the challenges to doing so. This paper describes the response of watershed residents to !'Jew York City's efforts to avoid filtration mandated by the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments and 1989 Surface Water Treatment Rule. The emergence of a spectrum of stakeholder groups representing land owners, sport fishermen, businesses, environmental groups and local communities has brought social and economic issues not previously part of the City's water management program to the center of the …