Studiees on Quantitative Risk Acceptance Criteria and Comparative Risks

摘要

Two aspects of risk assessment are investigated in this report. The first deals with the comparison of selected technological risks with several proposed and augmented risk acceptance criteria. The second deals with preliminary criteria for comparative risk acceptance. It is found that values put forth for individual risk acceptance criterial appear to be at the lower end of implicitly accepted or calculated risks. Individual risk acceptance criteria based on a graded benefit scale are difficult to apply because it is difficult to determine the exact degree of benefit for each technology. Comparative risk assessment is difficult because technologies producing the same benefits often have disparate risks (i.e., range of impact, manifestation and degree of uncertainty). When the risks are not disparate, the benefits are usually quiite different. A set of preliminary criteria for comparative risk assessment are, however, proposed and discussed. (ERA citation 08:014888)