Value-of-information analysis for nuclear waste storage tanks

This article describes an application of a value-of-information (VOI) analysis to a problem involving information collection and sampling costs of millions of dollars and ultimate consequences of decisions ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The context of this VOI analysis was the determination of the chemical and radiological composition of nuclear waste in 177 storage tanks at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State. These tanks include different types of waste and knowing their composition affects important decisions about how to treat these wastes for purposes of processing, stabilization, and ultimate storage. This analysis was conducted as part of a larger “proof-in-principle” study of how VOI concepts could be used to improve the collection of data for the purpose of identifying the composition of nuclear tank wastes and for subsequent decisions about tank-waste management. The analysis showed that a VOI analysis can be very useful and it can also provide specific guidance on the problem at hand. In particular, the analysis showed that it was worth while to collect additional information for only four of 15 tanks in question and eventually, the DOE decided to act on these tanks without the additional information. At the same time the DOE decided to focus on another set of tanks, which involved more imminent risks of flammable gas explosions and focused its effort on collecting information and stabilizing these tanks.