A Systems Analysis Approach to Nuclear Facility Siting

In recent years there has been a growing tendency in science to conduct multi-disciplinary studies of large-scale systems. These studies include the entire spectrum of economic, technological, environmental and societal factors which characterize the complex problems of advanced industrialized societies. One of the more promising ways of addressing these problems is the broad research strategy of applied systems analysis. Basically this is a rational approach to problem-solving which attempts to identify and model interactions between the systems under study and all other systems. This results in a thorough understanding of the system being studied which may then serve as an aid in decision-making. This paper attempts to demonstrate an application of the techniques of systems analysis, which have been successful in solving a variety of problems, to the question of nuclear facility siting.

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