Rocky Flats, plutonium, and controversy: Citizen activists provide institutional memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
John Abbotts
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Flats ◽  
Institutional Memory

Improving soil remediation through characterization

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 386-387
Author(s):  
E. C. Buck ◽  
N. L. Dietz ◽  
J. K. Bates
Keyword(s):  
Dust Particles ◽  
Radiochemical Analysis ◽  
Solid Product ◽  
Uranium Contamination ◽  
Physical Separation ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Rocky Flats ◽  
Remediation Strategies ◽  
Bearing Materials ◽  
X Ray Absorption

Operations at former weapons processing facilities in the U. S. have resulted in a large volume of radionuclidecontaminated soils and residues. In an effort to improve remediation strategies and meet environmental regulations, radionuclide-bearing particles in contaminant soils from Fernald in Ohio and the Rocky Flats Plant (RFP) in Colorado have been characterized by electron microscopy. The object of these studies was to determine the form of the contaminant radionuclide, so that it properties could be established [1]. Physical separation and radiochemical analysis determined that uranium contamination at Fernald was not present exclusively in any one size/density fraction [2]. The uranium-contamination resulted from aqueous and solid product spills, air-borne dust particles, and from the operation of an incinerator on site. At RFP the contamination was from the incineration of Pu-bearing materials. Further analysis by x-ray absorption spectroscopy indicated that the majority of the uranium was in the 6+ oxidation state [3].

Institutional Memory and Organizational Learning

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (40) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Ackley
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Institutional Memory

Kapasitas Adaptasi dan Resiliensi Komunitas Menghadapi Bencana Erupsi Gunung Merapi

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 617
Author(s):  
Nyimas Ayu Dillashandy ◽  
Nurmala K Panjaitan
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Institutional Memory ◽  
Innovative Learning

Mount Merapi eruption has occurred several times in Indonesia and the biggest eruption that last occurred in 2010. The community were suffered losses and were affected by eruptions. The purposes of this research are to analyze community resilience, to analyze the level of vulnerability, and to analize the community adaptive capacity. The research using a quantitative approach supported by qualitative data. Simple random sampling technique is used as the sampling method and the informant was taken purposively. The results of this research showed that when the eruption occurred the community has a high vulnerability. The adaptive capacity is also high with innovative learning based on institutional memory and supported by the connectedness. Communities achieve resilience and can adapt to changes with high adaptive capacity.  Keywords: adaptive capacity, community resilience, eruption, vulnerability ABSTRAK Erupsi Gunung Merapi sudah terjadi beberapa kali di Indonesia dan erupsi terbesar yang terjadi terakhir kalinya yaitu pada tahun 2010. Komunitas mengalami berbagai kerugian dan terkena dampak dari erupsi. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis resiliensi komunitas, menganalisis tingkat kerentanan komunitas, dan menganalisis kapasitas adaptasi komunitas. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan dengan menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif yang didukung oleh data kualitatif. Pemilihan responden dilakukan dengan teknik sampel acak sederhana sedangkan pemilihan terhadap informan dilakukan secara sengaja. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa saat erupsi terjadi komunitas memiliki kerentanan yang tinggi. Kapasitas adaptasi komunitas tinggi dengan adanya innovative learning yang didasari oleh pengetahuan dan pengalaman dan didukung oleh jaringan yang dimiliki. Komunitas berhasil mencapai resiliensi dan dapat beradaptasi dengan perubahan-perubahan dengan kapasitas adaptasi yang tinggi.Kata kunci : kapasitas adaptasi, kerentanan, erupsi, resiliensi komunitas

A Reactive Culture

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Hardt
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Formal Learning ◽  
Memory Development ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Institutional Memory ◽  
The Way

Chapter 7 explains why NATO’s institutional memory continues to develop in the way that it does – despite formal learning processes being underutilized. Findings in this chapter draw on the author’s survey-based interviews with 120 NATO elites. The chapter begins by arguing that NATO’s organizational culture locks-in elites’ preference for relying on informal processes and avoiding formal processes. Key characteristics of NATO’s culture posed challenges for identifying and reporting strategic errors. The organization’s norm of consensus made formal agreements on past strategic errors difficult. Moreover, NATO’s focus on reaction over retrospection and a broader culture of blame aversion provided elites with little incentive to break the tradition of reliance on informal processes for memory development. Elites described feeling continuous pressure to react to the crisis at hand and treat past crises as unique – leaving little reason to invest in learning from past failures.

Lessons in Failure

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Hardt
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Research Design ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Institutional Memory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Observed Behavior

Chapter 1 introduces the subject of institutional memory of strategic errors, discusses why it matters for international organizations (IOs) that engage in crisis management and reviews the book’s argument, competing explanations and methodological approach. One strategic error in the mandate or planning of an operation can increase the likelihood of casualties on the battlefield. Knowledge of past errors can help prevent future ones. The chapter explores an empirical puzzle; there remain key differences between how one expects IOs to learn and observed behavior. Moreover, scholars have largely treated institutional memory as a given without explaining how it develops. From relevant scholarship, the chapter identifies limitations of three potential explanations. The chapter then introduces a new argument for how IOs develop institutional memory. Subsequent sections describe research design and explain why NATO is selected as the domain of study. Last, the chapter identifies major contributions to literature and describes the book’s structure.

Topple the racists 2: decolonising the space and the institutional memory of geography

Geography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-15
Author(s):  
Gerry Kearns
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Memory

Safety at Rocky Flats

Science ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 178 (4059) ◽  
pp. 350-352
Author(s):  
E. A. Martell
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Flats

Similar but Different: A Top-Down Benchmarking Approach to Investigate Nuclear Decommissioning Projects

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diletta Colette Invernizzi ◽  
Giorgio Locatelli ◽  
Naomi J. Brookes ◽  
Martin Grey
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Rocky Flats ◽  
Nuclear Decommissioning ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Nuclear Site ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Management Literature

Project management literature has, until now, mainly focused on new build and only in the last decades the issues of decommissioning (mega) projects has arisen. To respond to this changing environment, project management will need to understand the challenges of decommissioning projects. Decommissioning projects within Oil & Gas, Chemical and Nuclear sectors are characterized by high costs, long schedules and uncertainty-based risks. The budget for Nuclear Decommissioning Projects and Programmes (NDPs) are subject to well publicized increases and, due to their relatively recent emergence, complexity and variety, key stakeholders lack a full understanding of the key factors influencing these increases. Benchmarking involves “comparing actual or planned practices [...] to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement” [1] and offers significant potential to improve the performance of project selection, planning and delivery. However, even if benchmarking is the envisaged methodology to investigate the NDPs characteristics that impact on the NDPs performance, until now, it has only been partially used and there is a huge gap in the literature concerning benchmarking NDPs. This paper adapts a top-down benchmarking approach to highlight the NDPs characteristics that mostly impact on the NDPs performance. This is exemplified by a systematic quantitative and qualitative cross-comparison of two major “similar-but-different” NDPs: Rocky Flats (US) and Sellafield (UK). Main results concern the understanding of the alternatives of the owner and/or the contractors in relation to (1) the physical characteristics and the end state of the nuclear site, (2) the governance, funding & contracting schemes, and (3) the stakeholders’ engagement.

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