Establishing a method for assessing and ranking restoration strategies for radioactively contaminated sites and their immediate surroundings

An international project, which is part funded by the EU, has established a transparent generic method for assessing and ranking restoration strategies (RESTRAT) for radioactivity contaminated sites and their close surroundings. The decision-making procedure is based on multi-attribute utility analysis, which is considered superior to conventional cost-benefit analysis because criteria can be incorporated without the need to convert them into common units of measurement. In this study the attributes considered are radiation-induced health effects, monetary costs and social factors. These may be broken down into a series of sub-attributes and can be combined through a series of utility functions and weighting factors. A probabilistic approach is adopted to take account of the uncertainties associated with the utility functions and weighting factors. Restoration techniques are described in terms which allow these attributes to be determined. The application of this approach is illustrated in a worked example for Lake Tranebarssjon in Sweden.