Book Description

The Waste Policy Institute, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science and Technology (OST), conducted two focus groups with people who live or work near DOE sites. The purpose of the focus groups was to gain a better understanding of the general community's information needs about the development of innovative technologies that are used in the cleanup of the sites. The authors wanted to better understand of what role these people want to play in the development of new technologies, how OST communication products can help facilitate that role, and the usefulness of current OST communication products. WPI held the focus groups in communities near the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and the Savannah River Site (SRS) because they are among the DOE sites that cannot be cleaned up before 2006. To include many facets of the communities, WPI randomly selected participants from membership lists of organized groups in each community including: elected officials, school boards, unions, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, environmental organizations, health and human service organizations, and area clergy. While in the communities, WPI also interviewed stakeholders such as tribal representatives and a Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) member. Qualitative data gathered during the focus group sessions give some indication of general stakeholder opinions. However, the authors caution readers not to make broad assumptions about the general stakeholder audience based on the opinions of a limited number of general community stakeholders.