Stakeholder Participation in an Internet Forum for Communication About Risks at Department of Energy. W. Griffith, A. Smith, S. Curtis, S. Bartell, M. Hawke, D. Mercer, M. Robkin, C. Hendricksen, and T. Potter-Chil, Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, University of Washington
Today the Department of Energy (DOE) needs to involve many communities near its facilities in decisions about deactivation and remediation of its sites. This has been difficult because of lack of trust due to DOE’s past history of not involving communities in decisions about the use of its sites. Much of the concern in the communities has been about health, ecological, and cultural risks due to past and future activities at the sites. To demonstrate how to better communicate information about DOE sites, an interdisciplinary group of researchers has designed with assistance from stakeholders a Risk Information Tool for use on the Internet. The group developed a prototype tool for former reactor sites along the Columbia River at the Hanford facility. The design of the tool is a geographic information system–based computer discussion forum that contains general information about Hanford and risks from three contaminants: hexavalent chromium, tritium, and trichloroethylene. This Internet forum serves as a means not only of compiling, evaluating, and displaying large amounts of data but also as a means of incorporating stakeholder concerns about contamination and other risks. The experience of the group with the prototype tool indicates that involving stakeholders in the design of the tool provides a better means of communicating risk information, and that better understanding of stakeholder concerns alters the formulation of research questions pursued by investigators.