The Use of Multi-Attribute Methods to Respond to a Nuclear Crisis

Some researchers have historically seen a potential for applying multi-attribute risk analysis in nuclear emergency management to more effectively address potentially conflicting objectives, stakeholders with different perspectives, and many uncertainties. This approach was expected to ensure that all relevant attributes are considered in decision making; to enhance communication between the stakeholders, including the public; and to provide a method for explicitly including risk analysis in the process. The intent was to develop a decision support tool a priori that provides decision makers with a preplanned, systematic, and transparent approach, ensuring that decisions are made in an effective and timely manner. This research used an expert elicitation methodology for the identification and weighting of model attributes and selects and executes the optimal one for this application. The research results suggest that: (1) there are multi attribute decision making models available for this application, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology is the preferred one; (2) attributes to populate the model could be identified and structured in an AHP format; (3) subject matter experts (SMEs) can be identified and are available for the expert elicitation; and (4) the results can be easily understood and implementable a priori.