Social Psychological Studies of the Safeguards Problem (Diversion Safeguards Program)

摘要

Results of studies in the areas of hazards survey research, criminology, and simulation research are reported. In the simulation studies, an attempt was made to discover how decisionmakers behave when they are faced with problems caused by technical and practical uncertainties. In the criminology study, past experience in other regulated industries was scrutinized for its relevance to security arrangements in the nuclear fuel industry. In the hazards study, a survey was conducted of the perceptions of hazardous points in the nuclear fuel cycle in regard to the possibility of diversion. Completed questionnaires were received from 128 middle-level management personnel. These indicated greatest concern about plutonium nitrate, plutonium oxide, and enriched uranium oxide. Roughly half of the respondents considered about three percent input-output differences in throughput to be abnormal, but this fraction did not increase even for ten percent input-output differences. Responses were similar for laboratory, industry, or governmental respondents.